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Chelsea’s next scheduled game is the League Cup quarterfinal against Brentford on Wednesday, and as things stand at the moment, that’s still set to go ahead. Brentford have not played in a week and a half as they’ve been dealing with a COVID outbreak, seeing their Premier League matches against Manchester United and Southampton postponed, but it looks like they will be able to contest this game.
Of course, Chelsea have been dealing with our own COVID issues as well, though evidently not on a substantial enough level to get the league to postpone our game over the weekend. And so we’ve soldiered on, amid isolations, injuries, and overloads.
One thing that was a bit baffling was our seeming reluctance to call-up players from the Development Squad — especially with youth games scheduled at the moment — but it looks like we’ve finally given in.
While not officially confirmed by the club, it sounds (and in part looks like, based on a few images from the training ground today) like we brought in a dozen youngsters for training, who were joined by a few older players not recovering from the weekend’s efforts, including Ross Barkley, Jorginho (apparently NOT posivite after all), and Malang Sarr.
Those present reportedly include goalkeeper Teddy Sharman-Lowe, defender Xavier Mbuyamba, midfielders Lewis Baker and Harvey Vale, and forward Bryan Fiabema. A few lesser known youngsters joining them include Josh Brooking and Alfie Gilchrist (both defenders), Joe Haigh and Xavier Simons (both midfielders), Dion Rankine (wing-back), and Jay Wareham (striker). Highly rated Lewis Hall, just 17, was also there.
Harvey Vale, Josh Brooking, Alfie Gilchrist, Dion Rankine, Xavier Simons, Josh Brooking and Jay Wareham all called up. I have heard Fiabema, Baker and Mbuyamba too. It's almost like a try-out for Tuchel with senior players in recovery mode today apart from Jorgi and a few others. https://t.co/L9lExi4Az3
— Nizaar Kinsella (@NizaarKinsella) December 20, 2021
As of now it looks like it’s
— CarefreeYouth (@CarefreeYouth) December 20, 2021
Teddy Sharman-Lowe, Josh Brooking, Xavier Mbuyamba, Alfie Gilchrist, Dion Rankine, Xavier Simons, Lewis Baker, Lewis Hall, Joe Haigh, Harvey Vale, Bryan Fiabema and Jay Wareham
All trained with the first team today. #CFC
Here are a few pictures as well:
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Xavier Simons & Malang Sarr
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
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Jorginho & Josh Brooking, with Lewis Hall in the background
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
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Joe Haigh & Harvey Vale with Sarr looking on
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
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Alfie Gilchrist & Jay Wareham
Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images
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