Chelsea head coach Xabi Alonso admitted he was completely unaware that forward Joao Pedro's injury had been exposed through Fantasy Premier League before Saturday's 2-0 defeat by Tottenham. "I am not into the fantasy team thing, so I didn't know that," he told reporters.

The revelation came after FPL trackers identified accounts believed to belong to Chelsea staff, a player, and a relative of a player — all of whom had transferred out or benched Joao Pedro before the weekly deadline, tipping off millions of managers to his absence.

How the leak unfolded

FPL manager FPL Karim was among those who pieced together the picture. He had spotted rumours of a Chelsea attacking player missing and began investigating the FPL teams of those connected to the club.

"I checked his brother's FPL team and saw that he'd sold Joao Pedro that gameweek and brought in Nicolas Jackson. I thought it was a bit weird. Why would you sell him when he's one of the most-owned forwards in the game? That's when I felt maybe it was Joao Pedro who was missing out. I posted about it, it went viral, and that was basically it."

Official confirmation of the injury arrived only after the FPL deadline had closed. By that point, 1.7 million managers had already named Joao Pedro as their captain — a selection that doubles a player's points return. Alonso later confirmed the striker had missed the match due to "fluid on his knee."

The absence surprised many, given Joao Pedro had been photographed in training earlier in the week.

A growing problem across the Premier League

Fantasy Premier League is played by more than 11 million people according to official figures, and the game's open database makes it possible to search for accounts belonging to players, staff, and family members. By tracking their transfer activity, observers can infer what is happening behind closed doors at training grounds.

The highest-profile earlier case involved Jack Grealish's absence from Aston Villa's match against Leicester City in February 2021. Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers admitted he had heard about the issue before kick-off, while Villa manager Dean Smith reportedly banned club figures from playing FPL after a 2-1 defeat. Later that year, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola labelled the practice "unethical and unprofessional."

BBC Sport found accounts that trackers claim are linked to staff, players, and family members at clubs across the Premier League — including Arsenal, Liverpool, Leicester, and Newcastle. FPL expert FPL Focal told BBC Sport: "I am sure there are many more that have not been found. I have noticed some players have started using aliases. I've also had a couple of requests over the years to remove accounts, which I have always respected."

Chelsea's troubled history with leaks

Chelsea endured three notable leaks during Liam Rosenior's brief spell in charge. Two occurred ahead of the legs of Chelsea's record 8-2 aggregate UEFA Champions League defeat by Paris St-Germain, and a third came before Rosenior's final game as head coach.

In a remarkable episode, former defender Marc Cucurella's barber was found to have revealed that both Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro were unavailable through injury. Chelsea subsequently reminded players to exercise caution about who they share information with, and strengthened security at the training ground — including building new fencing around first-team pitches.

What clubs can do — and what they cannot

The Premier League has no league-wide rule prohibiting those involved in the sport from playing FPL, leaving any response entirely as a club matter. Clubs can warn players and staff to be careful, or discourage them from selecting players from their own squad. A full ban on the game remains an option, though an extreme one.

Ultimately, monitoring the activity of players' friends and family members is far harder than regulating staff. As the Joao Pedro episode demonstrates, information can still surface in unexpected ways — however tight a club believes its controls to be.