Lampard provides injury updates on Tammy Abraham and Antonio Rüdiger

Chelsea’s 22-year-old academy rising star and graduate had to be helped off the pitch after sustaining a hip injury just before the half in Wednesday’s midweek clash at Valencia. It was thankfully thought to have been not too serious after the match.

In today’s pre-match press conference, Frank Lampard ruled him out of this weekend’s match against West Ham anyway. When asked about Tammy Abraham’s outlook, he offered more insight into the young striker’s availability.

“We’ll know by the end of the weekend. He’s got some pain. He won’t be involved tomorrow, and we will see by Monday.

It’s a squad game over the course of a season. The lads have been training well. Every day is a work day, so when opportunities come they’re ready. I have full confidence in them.”

Michy Batshuayi replaced Abraham in Valencia, and will likely battle it out with Olivier Giroud to lead the Chelsea attack in tomorrow’s match.

Batshuayi has been Lampard’s second choice striker as of late. As we know with Lampard, selection is based on merit. Minutes have been hard to come by as a result of Abraham’s form, however Batshuayi has seemingly earned the trust of his manager.

“A work ethic, a quality. It’s not easy when you’re not playing so many minutes as you want. With Tammy’s form, it’s meant he’s played a lot, but that can obviously change now Tammy has his injury. I’ve seen a great work ethic, and a persistence in how he works and a consistency, and his quality.”

Meanwhile, Antonio Rüdiger’s season has barely started. Thanks to separate knee and groin injuries, he has seen the pitch for a total of 45 minutes, and has not made an appearance since mid-September against Wolves.

According to Lampard, his injury issues are healed. Now all that’s left is match fitness.

“He’s getting closer, he had a really good week’s work. The reality is he’s not played for a very long time so it’s a mini pre-season. Now the injury hopefully is over, we need to get him properly fit. He’s working very hard. It’s days and weeks rather than months which is great news for us.”

- Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC