Exclusive injury update on 4 Chelsea players racing to play on Saturday | OneFootball

Our writer Simon Phillips is up and running for the season, and this afternoon he’s got plenty of interesting information about the injury status of several key Chelsea players in an exclusive on his Substack today.

Cole Palmer, Reece James (and his backup Malo Gusto), plus Romeo Lavia would all be in Enzo Maresca’s preferred team, but all have had injury doubts of various magnitude over the last weeks and months. Phillips has positive news all round – but it still looks like we will be a little short for Saturday night’s game.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Romeo Lavia training together

Chelsea short for this week – but soon back to full power

Cole Palmer is the easiest to tick off. He withdrew from England duty because of muscle fatigue and being close to the limit rather than a specific injury. Phillips says he’s trained as normal this week and will start on Saturday. That’s perhaps the most important news.

James has not featured in a competitive game this season after hurting himself right at the end of preseason, and while he’s also apparently been “on the grass”, it will take a while for him to build up to full fitness. The issue is more than his backup, Malo Gusto, is also injured. Phillips says he won’t be ready for Saturday, so an alternate option at right back, or a formation shift, is on the cards.

Finally Romeo Lavia, who was described as having had a “small problem with his hamstring” by Enzo Maresca ahead of the Wolves game is training too – but won’t be back for this game either apparently, disappointing news given it’s 3 weeks since the issue flared up. If he is indeed back next week it will be almost a full month out, hardly ideal given he missed all of last season.