November 30, (THEWILL) – English Premier League leaders Chelsea may be without key squad members for Wednesday’s match against Watford as injuries rise ahead of the frantic festive season.
The Blues already had Ben Chilwell and Mateo Kovacic out for the season due to anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and hamstring injuries, respectively, while N’Golo Kante twisted his knee against Juventus in the Champions League and missed Sunday’s match with Manchester United.
Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel highlighted three new injury worries ahead of the midweek EPL meeting with Watford at Vicarage Road – none of which are overly serious at this moment.
In his pre-match press conference, the German gaffer said: “For the game tomorrow at Watford, for sure we will be without Chilly, Kova and N’Golo who are all out and then we have some doubts over some other players that we need a bit more time on, to do some examinations on before deciding whether they can be involved.
“Reece James, Jorginho and Timo Werner we will have to wait and then decide on. They all finished training with us today but there will be some last-minute decisions on those players for sure.”
Late in the United game, Romelu Lukaku made his long-awaited return from an ankle injury against his previous club. Tuchel continued, when asked about Lukaku’s role on Wednesday, “Romelu is pretty easy. He came on in the last match and he has continued to train with the group.
“He is ready to progress in minutes and this is where he is at right now.”
Tuchel, who is not afraid to tamper with his lineups, said that as the season gets busier, he will not hesitate to rotate his team.
“It will be challenging but it has been challenging before. We won’t change our routine.
“We have a tight communication with the medical and fitness department and we tried to predict the load, look at who is overloaded and underloaded, and from there we see what we will need in the next game.
“As you know, we take it step by step. If you look too far ahead you will see there are tough weeks coming. That is why we focus on the details, the next game, maybe on the next two games where we can rely on our predictions because we have fantastic support from everybody.
“It’s on the players to be strong in the games but to take recovery very seriously. We have to be very good in recovery and sleeping, taking the right food and supplements to help us recover.
“Our style is intense and needs to be to have a certain mentality and identity on the pitch. This is what we want. We are not scared to rotate and we will use the whole squad.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
