We round up the injury news and expectations of Chelsea Football Club during the gruelling international break. Will CFC manager Enzo Maresca have a full squad to choose from when the Premier League resumes? The west London outfit have been given a simultaneous, significant boost along with a seeming fitness blow ahead of the Leicester City fixture.
Which stars of the team remain sidelined? Who is back in contention for action, if at all? And what fresh injuries, if any, have the Blues suffered now? In addition, a revealing insight was potentially posted by a well-known current Blue. What's he been saying? Meanwhile a former Chels coach has joined us in siding with the Romeo Lavia-Moises Caicedo partnership over the inclusion of Enzo Fernandez in the starting lineup. But what comments did the classy ex-Blues midfielder make exactly?
Jody Morris sides against Enzo Fernandez in midfield conundrum debate
As I previous mentioned, Morris was a class act on the pitch. He was one of those diminutive technicians with admirable vision. He could certainly create, and was really comfortably involved in any aspect of the game.
A qualified and experienced coach, Morris is definitely another ex-professional whose views are well worth reading. The 45-year-old is always on hand with notable Blues intuition when required. This time the former Chelsea man has been speaking on Lavia, Caicedo and Fernandez.
While backups such as Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Cesare Casadei look on, a trio vies for CFC's scarce EPL starting places. The Belgian and Ecuadorian seem to be prevailing in the battle; rightly so from what I've witnessed this season.
Morris concurs with The Pride of London on this one. And who can blame him? The combative not to mention cultured Caicedo is clearly one of the first names on Maresca's team sheet. Again, that is justifiable.
Lavia complements his partner in the middle almost perfectly. The World Cup-winner is in the unfortunate position of possibly being left behind here. Maybe a transfer is on the cards for Fernandez in the not too distant future. Who knows?!
"I certainly like the earlier signs of them two together, I feel that Lavia offers a bit of steeliness. There’s different ways of creating it, and he can carry the ball very well, a lot better than an Enzo can. So you may look at Enzo and think that he can maybe pick a pass, but there’s different ways in which you can break down presses, or you can open up teams, and sometimes Lavia carries the ball."Jody Morris
Chelsea injury updates
Speaking of Lavia, the young Belgium international has sustained a problem of late. However, with respect to his knock, the eye-catching 20-year-old offered reassurance to the CFC fan base:
"I received a little blow. At the moment, we are testing to see if it is okay, but it should be fine, I think."Romeo Lavia
While Jadon Sancho appears to have inadvertently confirmed his own comeback on social media. The Manchester United loanee was talking about a photo with up-and-coming Blue Tyrique George at the time:
"Sancho wrote: 'We definitely recreating this picture! Tyrique has the world at his feet, top guy and such a humble human being. Deserves every bit of success coming his way! See you at training on Monday bro'."Jadon Sancho