There’s good news, and then there’s bad news. It’s better to start with the bad, I suppose.
Édouard Mendy, as expected, won’t be fit to play tomorrow after his hamstring injury ten days ago. More concerningly, Lampard did his usual “hope it’s a small injury” thing, which has historically meant many more weeks on the sidelines.
Also ruled out from tomorrow’s match are Thiago Silva, who had to travel to South America over the break and apparently has not quite recovered from that, and Hakim Ziyech, who’s not fit to start (but might make a substitute appearance like he did for Morocco last week).
“Mendy won’t be fit for the match tomorrow, we hope the injury’s not too long. Thiago Silva after his trip, he’s not unfit but he’s not ready to play the game because of the travelling and the game that he played. So he won’t be in the squad. [...] Hakim Ziyech in the squad, he’s not fit to start but fit to participate for some minutes we hope.”
The good news is that there have been no setbacks for Christian Pulisic, so he’s now fully fit and ready to start, while Ben Chilwell has gotten over his illness and injury from the break and should also be good to go. And N’Golo Kanté did not feature in the injury update after he missed France’s last match.
“Ben Chilwell is in the squad, so he’s got over some of the feeling he had that took him out of the England squad around the injury he’s had for a while now. Christian Pulisic is in the squad and fit to play...”
-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London
Chelsea take on Southampton tomorrow at Stamford Bridge to begin a busy run of alternating Premier League and midweek Champions League matches for the next three weeks. Hopefully the injured trio will all be back soon because they’ll be certainly needed!