Lots of Chelsea team news to cover from the past couple days of Enzo Maresca press conferences. The Blues boss provided updates on the likes of Cole Palmer, Marc Guiu, Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile over the course of Monday and Tuesday. We got a lot of ground to cover, so let’s just dive right in, starting with Palmer.
He’s been battling a groin problem, and playing through the pain for the past couple weeks or so. He missed out on the League Cup win over Lincoln City, but to be fair, he wouldn’t feature in a match against a League One side even if he were healthy.
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“Cole is probably the only one that we need to assess a little bit,” Maresca said on Monday.
“He already made a huge effort last Saturday. He was not 100%, but he wanted to be there to help his teammates. It was painful [for him], so we decided to change. We await day by day to see how he is.”
Maresca was alluding to yesterday’s match, but the same logic and outlook applies to the match coming up this weekend. He’s a doubt against Brighton.
Turning to Lavia and Badiashile, the pair have both been absent for awhile now, but it looks like they might be finally nearing a return.
They’re both back in training now, with Maresca saying the following ahead of the cup clash: “[Benoit and Romeo] will not be back for this game, unfortunately.
“They both took part in the session yesterday, which is good news, and hopefully they can be available soon.”
That sort of sounds like out for this weekend, but in contention for next weekend; probably.
Elsewhere Marc Guiu is a 50/50 proposition for the Saturday clash with a knock of some sort, with Maresca explaining after the match:
“The reason why is because yesterday in the game preparation, he felt something, nothing important, but with Liam Delap already out, we did not want to take a risk. So tonight, we give Ty (George) and Jamie (Gittens) a chance.”
And then finally Sanchez is eligible to play here, because he served his one match ban in the League Cup last night. It’s very convenient, for both him and the team, to serve that suspension in a game where he would not have even played anyway.
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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