Christensen, Rudiger, Pedro fitness concerns ahead of Saturday’s match against Liverpool

Andreas Christensen was not quite his usual self yesterday. Making just his second start of the season, the 22-year-old committed more than his fair share of mistakes, a pattern that led him to losing his starting spot in the second half of last season as well.

While inconsistencies are part of any young player’s development, Christensen’s starting to make a habit of this and that’s a bit concerning. Yesterday’s performance however has an excuse: he was feeling under the weather, apparently.

Christensen did also appear to strain something while stretching for an interception in the second-half. He was seen moving gingerly and taken off soon afterwards. Regardless of whether the substitution had more to do with that rather than his illness — he supposedly threw up at half-time yet still came out for the second-half — Christensen’s status for the weekend is probably in doubt.

Normally, that would not be a problem as he’s not been a first-choice player this season, but Antonio Rudiger is still recovering form his groin injury. Neither he nor Pedro (shoulder) were full participants in today’s training and were instead working on their own recovery off to the side.

With the short turnaround to Saturday’s game, there isn’t much time at all to regain full fitness for either one of them.

If Rudiger can’t go, Gary Cahill looks set to make a second consecutive start, this time alongside David Luiz, reuniting that famous Champions League final-winning partnership. Meanwhile, Willian would surely deputize for Pedro once again, despite a rather poor showing last night.