Thiago Silva continues to face an uncertain future at Chelsea despite stepping up for Pochettino this season. (Photo by GLYN KIRK/AFP via Getty Images)
Thomas Tuchel has given the latest injury update on the Chelsea squad as they prepare to battle it out against Burnley tomorrow. They will travel to Turf Moor with the objective of securing all three points in their pursuit to catch up to Manchester City and Liverpool in the Premier League table.
Hakim Ziyech, Thiago Silva and Trevoh Chalobah were on the sidelines in the previous match against Luton Town but have returned to training yesterday. Speaking in the pre-match press conference (h/t Football.London), Tuchel has revealed that all three of them should be in contention to feature against Sean Dyche’s side tomorrow.
The German coach also provided the latest assessment on Reece James, who has just returned from a long term injury. He added that the right-wingback did not show any relapse after playing in his first two games so far. However, the boss did give some concerning updates regarding Cesar Azpilicueta as he missed yesterday’s training session. A final decision will be made on his availability at the last moment.
“No fresh injuries but I have to talk to the fitness coaches and doctors. Azpi wasn’t training yesterday so this will be too close. Hakim was in training, hopefully, he can come back. Reece did training yesterday and no reactions after his two matches. The guys who were not with us at Luton because of minor injuries, Thiago and Trevoh, were back in training and seem good to go.”
We had it really tough against Luton Town in the FA Cup fifth round, having needed to fight to get a 3-2 win on the night. There were heavy rotations due to injuries and tiredness after the Carabao Cup final, but we eventually qualified to the quarter-finals.
That being said, the clash against the Championship team is enough of an example of why we cannot take any team for granted. Despite a 2-0 loss against Leicester City, the Clarets are in a decent run of form as they look to get out of the relegation zone.
The return of Silva and Chalobah would go a long way in solidifying our defensive set-up. The changes in the backline made things tough for us in the last match, but the centre-back duo’s availability would greatly help us in that regard. As for James, it is good to know that his rehab has gone smoothly after returning from such an injury.
Ziyech’s involvement would give us a major boost since he has arguably been our best player recently before getting injured. However, Azpilicueta’s issue would be concerning, to say the least, since it leaves us with just James in the right wing-back role.
The skipper has struggled to maintain his fitness of late, so let us hope that he can overcome this issue moving forward. Now let’s wait and see whether we will be the victors or not tomorrow. We do have the squad to get over the line against a team of Burnley’s status, but this season has shown that nothing can be taken for granted.
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