Xabi Alonso has plenty of fitness concerns to contend with, ahead of his Chelsea managerial debut. Overall, the team news is pretty mixed, as we have both some good injury news, and some bad injury news for Blues supporters. We’ll start first with the bad news, as youthful central defender Aaron Anselmino is set to miss out. He continues to struggle with that hamstring injury he suffered during the final preseason friendly of Chelsea’s tour of Australia and the Pacific Rim. Wesley Fofana is also unavailable, as he carries over a red card suspension from the 2-1 Championship Sunday loss at Sunderland.
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Moving on to the doubtful category, Jordan Henderson is still recovering from that wrist injury he suffered while celebrating England’s epic, massive round of 16 World Cup victory over Mexico at the famous Azteca Stadium. Henderson missed out against Real Sociedad last weekend, despite having been spotted in training last week
Meanwhile Emmanuel Emegha also returned to training this past week, but he will also likely be left out of the matchday squad.
That’s due to his having missed the majority of the preseason due to a hamstring injury.
The news is much better with Danny Welbeck and Mamadou Sarr as the latter has been passed fit, and the former should be the same by kickoff time.
“Danny can be involved,” Alonso said of the striker signed this summer,” he just needed a couple of days not training because of a little thing.
“We expect him to be back [training] on Saturday. We need to go day by day, but that is the plan at the moment.”
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.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, Ratings and RG. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.