Chelsea take on Crystal Palace in the English Premier League on Tuesday and Frank Lampard could miss a few key players with injuries.
The first big injury absentee will be N’Golo Kante who was taken off in the 78th minute vs Watford and the Chelsea manager has revealed that the midfielder has suffered a hamstring injury.
The other injury absentee will be midfielder Mateo Kovacic who picked up an Achilles injury during the loss to West Ham United and will not be a 100% fit to take on Palace in midweek.
‘Kante won’t be in the squad,’ said Lampard in his pre-match press conference.
‘He has a low-level hamstring injury. We’re hoping it’ll be a week or so. I would expect we’ll be very lucky to have him for Sheffield United.
‘[Mateo] Kovacic trained with us today, he’s not ready for this game, hopefully, the next. [Fikayo] Tomori is still not ready. He had a small setback in training so hopefully next week.’
The absence of Tomori will not be a major issue since Rudiger and Christensen are anyways the first-choice starters in central defence.
But the injuries to Kante and Mateo Kovacic could be a bit of an issue for the Chelsea manager since both the midfielders have been regular starters for the club since the restart.
Jorginho is available for selection but the Italian is yet to start a game since the resumption so Lampard will be a bit sceptical to throw him straight back into the action.
Billy Gilmour replaced Kante during the weekend and we could see the youngster start against Palace on Tuesday.
And with Kovacic absent, Ross Barkley and Mason Mount will likely keep their place in the starting line-up. Ruben Loftus-Cheek could also come into the side but we don’t think the England international will be given a start.
