CHELSEA are faced with an injury crisis as they head to Fulham for a London derby.
Graham Potter’s side make the short trip to Craven Cottage on Thursday hoping to bounce back from two defeats in four days to Manchester City.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will return to the squad after missing the trip to the Etihad, but Chelsea are still without several other key players.
Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, N’Golo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic and Raheem Sterling will also miss the game.
Potter said: “Pierre’s fine so he’ll be in the squad for the game tomorrow.
“Christian’s going to be out for a couple of months we think. Hopefully it will be less, but that’s the timeframe there.
read more on football
“We think Raheem will be out for less time than Christian. We’re still evaluating the actual extent of it, but hopefully it will be less than that.
“Reece was out on the grass today, not training with the team but training on his own.
“N’Golo’s had his first couple of days out training on his own as well, although he has still got a long, long way to go before he is back fully.”
Potter is yet to name an unchanged team since becoming manager and is therefore likely to shuffle his pack once again.
Most read in Football
FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS – BEST NEW CUSTOMER OFFERS
With Edouard Mendy out injured, Kepa Arrizabalaga will keep his place in goal.
Meanwhile, the back four in the Prem game against City performed well, so Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly Marc Cucurella are in line to keep their places.
Into midfield, Denis Zakaria should return after he dropped to the bench on Sunday and could be joined by Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount in the middle.
Going forward, it’s touch and go whether Joao Felix has been registered in time to play.
The Portugal star is set to have a work permit meeting on Thursday, while Potter said: “It was good to get him in training today and we will see about playing on Thursday.”
Providing he is eligible, he could start the game considering he played 72 minutes against Barcelona last weekend and is match fit.
If Potter doesn’t throw him straight into the action, Aubameyang could lead the line and be supported up front by Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
