Enzo Maresca has confirmed that Chelsea duo Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana will not return until next year.
Badiashile picked up an injury on the eve of the Brentford clash last weekend, while Fofana suffered an injury in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa at the beginning of the month. Levi Colwill, Tosin Adarabioyo and Axel Disasi have been deployed at centre-back in the duo's absence and have performed admirably.
Maresca was asked for an update on Badiashile and Fofana during his pre-match press conference ahead of the Blues' Premier League clash with Everton on Sunday. The Italian said: "Both they are still out and both will still be out for a long period." Asked if they won't be back back January, Maresca replied: "Yeah."
Chelsea know they can leapfrog Liverpool at the top of the league if they beat the Toffees on Sunday, albeit potentially only for a few hours with the Reds playing Tottenham later in the day. Asked if there is extra pressure on his players, Maresca said: "No, I don't think so, I don't think so. First of all, because we try to focus on the game, not on the consequence of the game that can be the leader for a few hours.
"This is the first reason. And then since we started, I'm trying to convince the players just to be focused on the game plan, how we can beat them, how we can do the right things, no more than that. So I don't think that they can have some pressure about the consequences of the win. Because first of all, you have to win."