Chelsea take on Everton in the Premier League on Sunday and both Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic have returned back to training.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek suffered an Achilles tendon rupture in May of last year and since then it has been a long road to recovery for the midfielder. While he has been on the bench for the Chelsea in the past couple of matches but is yet to start a competitive game.
Christian Pulisic picked up his injury in January but the manager has now confirmed that the American international along with Loftus-Cheek played in an in-house game earlier this week but the duo is yet to be fully fit meaning they will not play against Everton.
‘We just had an in-house game here which Ruben and Christian Pulisic took part in,’ reported Lampard via the club’s official website.
‘It’s great to see Christian get some minutes. He’s short of match fitness but it’s the first time the injury has felt at a level to get him on a big pitch in a relatively competitive match. That’s a big step forward, hopefully.
‘Ruben played half of that game himself. He is trying to find match fitness. He’s short of that, Ruben is saying that himself and I can see that. There is work to do.’
While Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic are making a swift comeback, but all is not good in the injury front for Chelsea after the manager confirmed that Callum Hudson-Odoi has aggravated his injury meaning the winger will be out for longer than expected.
He added: ‘He had a re-injury yesterday. We’re having a scan this afternoon. He will be longer than expected.
‘It’s tough. He wasn’t rushed back. All the signs were he was fit to train. He got reinjured on his first training session with us. It’s frustrating for him, a young boy who is so keen to play, and frustrating because it’s another injury for us.’
These untimely injuries have caused a lot of headaches for the Chelsea manager but somehow they are still holding onto their Champions League spot up until now.
And now that the likes of Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are making rapid progress, they should return back just in time to help the Blues keep their UCL status.
