Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior has revealed an injury blow that will impact the Blues for their game against Leeds United next week.
The Blues face Premier League basement boys Wolves this weekend before welcoming old rivals Leeds to Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night. They will definitely be without winger Jamie Gittens, who has torn his hamstring.
Rosenior said: "Jamie, he's looking a little bit more long-term. It's a real shame for him. He's got a tear in his hamstring, which is a real shame for him. I have not worked with him for too long. Obviously, I know about his career and what an outstanding player he is. Yeah, so that's going to be a big miss for us."
Gittens supplied the assist for Chelsea's solitary goal in their 3-1 beating at Elland Road earlier in the season - one of five he has contributed this season from 27 appearances. Chelsea are obviously blessed with far greater squad depth than Leeds and can deal with the absence of a winger, but Rosenior does have rotation and workload on his mind at the minute. He was unable to say on Friday if Reece James or Pedro Neto would be fit to take on Wolves and both players will be assessed before Saturday's trip to Wolverhampton. Cole Palmer is another player whose fitness is being carefully monitored by Chelsea to get the most out of him.
"Not just with Cole, with all of the players, we have the very best medical team, sports science team and we do many tests," said Rosenior. "We want to make sure these players can play at the level they need to play at to help us win. In terms of Cole, there isn't a timeframe that he's going to be perfect in a month or two months, it's game to game and that's the way we've been working with him. He's bought in and been magnificent. He wants to be playing every minute of every game, we know the player and the character that he is, but he's also maturing and he understands the bigger picture, which is his career."
Chelsea's fixture schedule for the rest of the season will be a little more hectic than Leeds. Though they were knocked out of the League Cup this week by Arsenal, like Leeds they remain in the FA Cup but also have the last 16 of the Champions League to look forward to. Beyond that some of Rosenior's men will hope to play in the summer too, when the World Cup begins.
"I'm very conscious that the lads played at the Club World Cup and went through the summer with no break," he said. "They've got to play so many games - our schedule has been crazy - then they have World Cups to go to and international games to play. I want to make sure the wellbeing is correct for these players and for their careers as well."
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