Chelsea hoping to have Moisés Caicedo and Noni Madueke return for Aston Villa game — report

Few teams in the world would be able to handle more than 10 first-team players’ absences on game day. However this has been a regular situation for Chelsea over the last few years, with injuries taking a huge toll on the team’s ability to perform consistently.

In our match against AFC Bournemouth last weekend, manager Mauricio Pochettino had 12 of his players unavailable due to injury or illness. Thankfully two of the most notable absences in the squad, midfielder Moisés Caicedo and attacker Noni Madueke, are expected to return in time to face Aston Villa next Sunday according a report from the Daily Mail.

Both Caicedo and Madueke returned from the international break with knee and muscle issues, respectively. Still these issues were not severe and they were only taken out of the squad as a precautionary measure to avoid risking further damage on their bodies as a result of too much strain after playing matches for their national teams.

The Mail’s report also mentions centre-forward Armando Broja is getting ever close to returning to the pitch after missing the entire second half of last season after an ACL rupture during a mid-season friendly against Aston Villa. The Albanian international is already back to full training and he’s expected to feature in an academy match in the next seven days.