Pochettino updates on three Chelsea players hurt and Enzo’s condition Mauricio Pochettino has delivered updates on injured trio Robert Sanchez, Trevoh Chalobah and Carney Chukwuemeka – and has also discussed Enzo Fernandez’s fitness ahead of our Premier League clash against Burnley.
With the final international break of the season complete, the Blues return to action tomorrow afternoon and will be looking to make it five matches without defeat in the Premier League.
However, Pochettino will have several selection decisions to make ahead of the fixture.
Ben Chilwell is a doubt with a dead leg suffered on international duty with England, and three further players were added to the injury list during the break.
Robert Sanchez is one of that trio. The goalkeeper came into the starting XI for our FA Cup quarter-final Leicester City and it’s in that game that Pochettino says Sanchez sustained an injury.
‘He suffered a problem when he landed in an action against Leicester,’ explained the Chelsea head coach. ‘We will see when he can be available but I don’t think he will be for the weekend.’
There is a more positive outlook on the fitness of Trevoh Chalobah.
The Academy graduate has started our last four matches in all competitions after recovering from a hamstring injury that kept him sidelined for six months.
Pochettino did not disclose the nature of Chalobah’s injury but, after the centre-back was involved in partial team training yesterday, there is optimism he could be involved against Burnley.
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‘Trevoh is doing well in the last few days,’ said Pochettino. ‘We will assess him again and see if he can be available. The percentage of Trevoh being available is high because it is not a big issue.’
There is a waiting game for Pochettino in terms of who starts in the Chelsea midfield against Burnley. Carney Chukwuemeka scored off the substitutes’ bench against Leicester last time out but then didn’t feature for England Under-21s during the break.
Pochettino explained:
‘Carney was good after the game against Leicester but suffered a small injury while away with the national team. It wasn’t while he was with us.’ Fernandez, meanwhile, only landed back in England on Thursday afternoon having represented Argentina in their two friendly matches against El Salvador and Costa Rica. He will have very little time to prepare for Burnley’s visit.
‘We will have to see how he is,’ said the Chelsea head coach. ‘He played two games so we need to see his energy and understand if he is ready to play or not.
‘It will be busy from now until the end of the season. We are going to play games to catch up because we were involved in the Carabao Cup until the very end and are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
‘It doesn’t look too much but it’s massive with the circumstances of being without many players. So we need to recover players and have players available because it’s going to be a tough run.’