Last night saw Chelsea suffer a shock 1-0 loss to Middlesbrough, in the first leg of their EFL Cup semifinal. As always, injuries played a part as the Blues were without the services of four players that they had hoped to have had available for the cup clash: Christopher Nkunku (hip), Ben Chilwell (thigh), Benoit Badiashile (unknown) and Carney Chukwuemeka (knee).
Will any of the quartet be available on Saturday for the Fulham Rd. derby?
Chelsea FC at Fulham FYIs
Kickoff: Sat. Jan. 13, 12:30pm, Stamford Bridge, London, UK
Chelsea Preview Material: Team News Starting XI Prediction
Transatlantic Passage: How the Premier League Redefined Soccer in America: LINK
PL Position, Form: Chelsea 10th, 28 pts, WWLWL Fulham 13th, 24 pts, WLLLW
Google Result Probability: Chelsea 60% Draw 22% Fulham 18%
Blues Team News
“We are so close with Chilwell, Badiashile and Chukwuemeka but we need to see every day the evolution,” manager Mauricio Pochettino said, during the last time he discussed this specific trio of injured players.
“Then it’s about if we can improve but they are so close. Always the risk is really important and seeing how the players perform in the training session.”
Regarding Nkunku, Pochettino said the following, ahead of the loss to the Brough.
“He won’t be involved tomorrow [Boro], we will see for Saturday. We are not sure, we are going to be cautious.”
He then added:
“Hope it is not a long period. At the moment he is not training, he is doing recovery. Not a big issue.”
Also, Romeo Lavia is out again, with an injury that they are failing to release the specific nature of. But it sounds like this more than just an unknown knock, and he could be out for well beyond Saturday’s southwest London derby.
“He feels something, some issue. We need to check and hope it’s not [bad]. I’m a little bit worried. I don’t know, because if you were watching the game [against Crystal Palace] you cannot appreciate I was changing the position with Lavia at the end because he was struggling to run. We will see what is going on.”
“I really believe in my players, it’s only the circumstances, we need to recover the players that are injured. We have some setback with players like Romeo Lavia, who was involved last game but cannot be involved today.”
Meanwhile Nicolas Jackson is away at AFCON while Wesley Fofana (torn ACL), Trevoh Chalobah (thigh), Reece James (thigh), Robert Sanchez (knee) and Marc Cucurella (ankle) all remain out as long-term injury absentees.
Paul M. Banks is the owner/manager of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He’s written for numerous publications, including the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. He regularly appears on NTD News and WGN News Now, while writing for the International Baseball Writers Association of America. You can follow the website on Twitter.