Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has provided a positive fitness update on three players before Thursday’s game against Copenhagen in Europe.
The Blues host Copenhagen at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night in the Conference League, with a place in the competition’s quarter-finals up for grabs.
Chelsea secured a 2-1 away victory in Copenhagen during last week’s first leg. Now, the Premier League side are expected to complete the job in the second leg.
In the first leg, Reece James and Enzo Fernandez were on the scoresheet to earn their team an aggregate lead. Incidentally, Jason Cundy was amazed by Fernandez after the midfielder’s impact as a substitute in the Copenhagen win.
Photo credit should read Michael Barrett Boesen / GocherImagery/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Photo credit should read Michael Barrett Boesen / GocherImagery/Future Publishing via Getty Images
Enzo Maresca provides positive fitness update on Chelsea trio Cole Palmer, Reece James and Christopher Nkunku
During Wednesday afternoon’s pre-match press conference, Enzo Maresca updated supporters on the fitness of three important first-team stars.
Apparently, Cole Palmer, Reece James and Christopher Nkunku were absent earlier in the week because of illness within the group. However, the trio all trained on Wednesday ahead of the European tie with Copenhagen on Thursday.
Maresca said via Chelsea’s YouTube channel: “Cole, Reece and Christo today has been their first session [of the week]. Yesterday they were not here, two days ago we had rest. The reason why is all of them had some problems, but today they were all back and are all better… We will see for tomorrow if we’re going to use some of them.”
MORE CHELSEA STORIES
Following Chelsea’s 1-0 Premier League win over Leicester City at the weekend, Maresca shared that Palmer was struggling with illness in the build up. It sounds like it’s spread throughout the group to some teammates, too.
John Obi Mikel praised Palmer for starting in Chelsea’s victory against Leicester despite missing training sessions with illness.
Unfortunately, Palmer’s penalty record is no longer 100 per cent after he saw his spot-kick saved by Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen on Sunday.
Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images
Photo by Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images
Potential Chelsea attack without Cole Palmer and Christopher Nkunku
Maresca didn’t rule out the aforementioned trio from starting versus Copenhagen in midweek, but the fact they’ve had just one training session will surely be a factor.
If the Blues want to have Palmer and Nkunku as ammunition off the bench, the forward line could look quite different.
Here is one way that Chelsea could line up as a front four without them:
Pedro Neto (Right-winger)
Jadon Sancho (Attacking midfielder)
Tyrique George (Left-winger)
Shim Mheuka (Striker)
In Chelsea’s 2-1 success against Copenhagen, they learned that the opposition are a strong outfit. They’ll come to Stamford Bridge knowing they’re underdogs and have got nothing to lose.
Therefore, it’ll be a big boost for everyone to see Palmer’s name when the Chelsea team sheet is announced on Thursday evening.