Chelsea were without a handful of their star players tonight, including Christian Pulisic, but they still managed to win easily at Brighton 3-1. Getting goals from Reece James, Kurt Zouma and Jorginho, manager Frank Lampard got a season with massive expectations started out on the right foot.
In the postgame press conference, he confirmed what had been suspected- Pulisic suffered an injury recovery setback in training this week. Although it’s been deemed only a minor setback, he still could miss out on next week’s blockbuster clash vs Liverpool.
Pulisic suffered a hamstring injury in the FA Cup loss to Arsenal, and had been originally expected to miss the first couple weeks of the season. However, he then recovered faster than expected this month and had been strongly thought to be in contention for Monday’s season opener against Brighton.
It appears now that we’re back at the original time table for his fuill recovery and return.
“Christian was training with us last week but he had a little bit of discomfort a couple of days ago where he was trying to train with us and be in contention for today, Lampard said in postgame.
“It would have been a big ask for today but he’s had to take a few steps back.”
The second year Blues boss also went on to say that he isn’t certain when the 21-year-old American will be full fitness again: “That’s one that I don’t have big news on at the minute. We’ll see.”
Chelsea will no doubt be hoping to have their new No. 10 available for the home opener against the reigning champions next weekend. One key member of the Blues attack who will be available is new summer signing Timo Werner. Lampard confirmed that the German who moved over from RB Leipzig only suffered a dead leg, and he’ll be back next week.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.