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Andre Villas-Boas has revealed that 50M striker Fernando Torres is fit and ready to play for Chelsea ahead of their match against Stoke, but that Brazilian centre half David Luiz will definitely not play with a knee injury - although he will be fit in 'less than a week', which I suppose is nice:
Torres should be okay to be selected for the team travelling up to Stoke. Yesterday [Thursday] he still couldn't remember a couple of things from the game and from before the game, but he was back in training today and he is up for selection for the squad. David Luiz will certainly be out of the game, he has been suffering for quite some time and it will keep him out for one more week, hopefully less.
-Andre Villas-Boas. Source: ChelseaFC.com.
So that's really interesting. I'm really really surprised that Torres would be declared fit within two days of suffering a 'light concussion' and a day after memory loss. That's not really the done thing in other sports I'm used to, and I'm a little bit worried that this might be rushing him back too soon - just like with John Obi Mikel and his painkillers. Villas-Boas went on to say that if Torres plays, it would probably be alongside Didier Drogba, which is interesting if nothing else. I think everyone's looking forward to seeing how the new manager plays it in the first game that matters.
David Luiz being confirmed out is a bit of a blow, especially considering how rusty he is after not having played a game in approximately forever. Missing the Stoke match isn't too bug a deal, but if he hasn't been able to train since June he's going to hake some time to get to full match fitness. Bad times there, I think.