Chelsea Vs Fulham: premier League
As the match between Chelsea and Fulham is about to held, Chelsea are hopeful that midfielder Mateo Kovacic return to the field with full fitness when they face against Fulham on first week of Febuary.
The Croatia international was surprisingly not in the squad for the Liverpool game at Anfield. Chelsea boss Graham Potter later cleared it up that he had an issue with his calf after the Crystal Palace game.
With no FA Cup or Carabao Cup game in between due to early eliminations, Chelsea have a 13-day gap between the Liverpool and Fulham game. It is probably enough time for Kovacic to return to full fitness, and also allow the likes of Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who were back in training last week, to spend more time on the training field with the squad.
The club also hopes that this gap will also allow the likes of Raheem Sterling and Wesley Fofana to return from their injuries. The former picked up an injury during the Premier league game against Manchester City earlier this month, while the latter’s return from injury dealt a setback with another issue during the mid-season friendly against Brentford.
If the encouraging performance against Liverpool was not good enough in terms of the news, these updates about the potential return of players are adding to it.
if the above-mentioned six players return by the next game or two, in addition to Joao Felix’s return to action from suspension after the Fulham game, Potter will have a nearly full squad to pick his teams from.
Chelsea’s injured players in Premier league
The latest Blues updates from the treatment room after the goalless draw at Liverpool with the latest on Raheem Sterling, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be participating in the Premier league games.
Graham Potter will be pleased to have ten days or so with his Chelsea side at Cobham before locking horns with Fulham at the start of next month. The Blues showed promising signs of improvement in the goalless draw with Liverpool but they’re still without a number of key players, who would ordinarily be in the starting line-up.
Chelsea are set to welcome their west London rivals to Stamford Bridge in just under two weeks’ time on February 3. By then the likes of Raheem Sterling and Wesley Fofan could both be available to feature in some capacity, whether it’s from the get-go or off the bench.
However, even if the duo do recover, Chelsea’s injury problems are far from solved with Christian Pulisic expected to be out until as late as March. But at least the United States international is set to feature before the end of the season; Armando Broja could be out until the summer as he continues to nurse a terrible blow to the knee.
James suffered a knee injury in Chelsea’s 2-0 win over AC Milan last year following a collision with Theo Hernandez. Then, upon his return after the World Cup, he pulled up against Bournemouth triggering another injury.
The 23-year-old returned to the pitches at Cobham ahead of the defeat to Fulham, but he was still training alone. Then, ahead of the tie with Liverpool, he first began to feature in first-team training again.
While he was not involved at Anfield at the weekend, his presence in training will serve as a huge boost to all those involved at the club. An appearance of some sort against Fulham will be targeted.
