Ruled out: Pedro Neto
Chelsea Football Newsletter
Pedro Neto will miss Chelsea’s Champions League trip to Qarabag with a “small issue”, manager Enzo Maresca has confirmed.
Neto was absent as Chelsea trained at Cobham on Tuesday morning ahead of flying out to Azerbaijan later this afternoon.
The 25-year-old was replaced by Estevao in the 85th minute of Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Tottenham on Saturday, with what appeared to be a calf issue.
Maresca said Neto’s injury was not serious, but the player will sit out the club’s fourth league phase game of the campaign.
“[It’s] not a problem, just a small issue. We will try to protect him. He is not involved in tomorrow's game,” Maresca said in his pre-match press conference.
Maresca is continuing to monitor the fitness of Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Joao Pedro, but with the trio in training on Tuesday, they are expected to be available for selection.
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Cole Palmer, Benoit Badiashile, and Dario Essugo remain long-term absentees, while Levi Colwill is continuing his recovery from a serious knee injury.
Maresca said he hoped to have Palmer and Badiashile back after the international break, with Chelsea hosting Barcelona on 25 November, but Essugo would not be back until the new year.
“We hope so, but with Cole, we try to schedule the beginning, and then we need to review that. We go day by day with Cole. He is not taking any sessions with the team. We have Benoit Badiashile that can probably be available after the international break, and for us, that is huge news.
“[Essugo] is still out for a while, probably we need to wait, but maybe December or January.”
Chelsea bounced back from their shock defeat to Sunderland with back-to-back victories over Wolves and Tottenham.
The Blues are chasing their third consecutive win in the Champions League, having beaten Ajax and Benfica after losing to Bayern Munich in their opening league phase game.