Chelsea striker Liam Delap could return from a long injury layoff on Wednesday night. The summer signing from Ipswich Town, who suffered a hamstring injury in August, has returned to first team training, and he’s a 50/50 proposition for the cup clash at Wolverhampton Wanderers in midweek.
“Liam is doing well,” Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said on Friday.
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“He took part in the session yesterday with the team for the first time. He isn’t going to be available for tomorrow’s game, but possibly for the cup game next week, he could be available.”
Delap, 22, could feature off the bench in midweek. Elsewhere Joao Pedro is a doubt for the match against Wolves, because he, according to Maresca “is not training every day because he is managing himself from the injury problem.”
It doesn’t sound like he has any injury of significance, but it’s more about managing minutes to avoid overwork, and any injury that would come with that.
Or he has a knock of some sort, but either way, it is very unlikely that he features in a cup clash like this. The situation sounds similar for Moises Caicedo, who is apparently dealing with a knock of some sort.
Even at full match fitness, Caicedo and Pedro would likely still miss out on a League Cup clash.
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor 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.”
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