Chelsea have some injury concerns as they return to Premier League action against Leicester City on Saturday.
Enzo Maresca returns to the King Power Stadium for the first time since leading the Foxes back to the Premier League last season. Before then, the Italian may have some big selection calls to make.
The Blues starting XI has been a fairly settled one in the Premier League with Maresca making sweeping changes to the side for European and cup games – a situation that is reportedly frustrating Christopher Nkunku.
Two Chelsea stars withdrew from England duty last week in Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill. Palmer was on the receiving end of a nasty challenge from Lisandro Martinez late on against Manchester United on 5 November, missing training leading up to the draw with Arsenal last time out.
While he played the full 90 minutes at the Gunners, the game passed Palmer by and did not look comfortable as he left the pitch that afternoon.
Maresca will hope a week off from international duty will have solved any issue s with Palmer pictured in training on Monday. Colwill meanwhile withdrew from the England squad with an unspecified issue but was also seen back in action at Cobham.
Romeo Lavia meanwhile was forced off against Arsenal, later confirming he had picked up a ‘little knock’.
While he was selected for the Belgium squad, he did not feature in games against Italy and Israel with Belgium boss Domenico Tedesco confirming he was still struggling with a hamstring injury.
Maresca will be expected to provide an update on Lavia at his pre-match press conference this week.
Malo Gusto was another forced off late on against Arsenal, withdrawing from the France Under-21 squad as a result. The right-back missed two games in similar circumstances in September but Gusto was also among the players pictured back in training at the start of the week.
His countryman Wesley Fofana was also in that group despite injury fears last week. Named in the senior France squad, the centre-half withdrew after ‘experiencing pain in his left knee’.
After missing over a year of action, Chelsea have been carefully managing his fitness but the sight of him on the training pitch this week bodes well for the trip to his former club.
Jadon Sancho meanwhile is expected to be available having not featured since being hooked at half-time against Liverpool at the end of October. The winger has battled injury and illness in recent weeks.
Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Fernandez, Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Jackson
Leicester vs Chelsea kicks off at 12:30pm on Saturday 23 November.
The match will be broadcast live on TNT Sports 1 and TNT Sports Ultimate with a live stream available on the Discovery+ app for TNT subscribers.
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