Chelsea faced AFC Bournemouth last weekend with their complete outfield and two possible subs absent due to injuries and illness.
Manager Mauricio Pochettino shared some update on Moisés Caicedo, Marc Cucurella, Noni Madueke, and Armando Broja ahead of Chelsea’s Premier League match against Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge next Sunday, with just the first on the list dubious in terms of availability for the forthcoming match.
“We need to assess Moi tomorrow. He was training individually, not with the team today. We need to assess tomorrow and we will see if he can be involved on Sunday.
“Marc suffered a fever but has been back since when we restarted the training this week. Noni was involved also during the week in training, so I think yes he will be ready. Maybe we need one day more for Broja. I think maybe he can be involved Sunday, but we are not sure. We need to assess him tomorrow.”
“It’s the same situation we can maybe talk about with many different players. Broja arrives and maybe he will be involved at the weekend but it is after nine months that he has not been competing. We cannot put the responsibility on him.
“Always the responsibility must be on the team, the collective effort. It’s not only the offensive players who need to score, all the players involved in the team need to try to score. We cannot expect that Broja arrives and, if he has the possibility to play, he is going to score with every single touch.
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“He needs time also to feel the competition and start to perform in the way that we expect that he can perform.”
Broja’s name stands out the most on the list because the 22-year-old striker has been out of action since December of last year due to an ACL tear. Given how long he’s been out of the game, Poch has set expectations for his general recuperation and eventual return in terms of team output.
While most players progressed in their recuperation, defender Benoît Badiashile suffered a little setback, as Pochettino stated today in his news conference. Badiashile, like Reece James, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Trevoh Chalobah, is training individually, according to the head coach, and is expected to start collective training soon.
“I think for us it’s about recovering players from injuries and the players who were out in the international break. In these circumstances for us it is good to have time to work. It was a very good week, we worked really hard with the players that we have and then time to recover players. If you are involved in European competition it’s difficult.
“For the fans of course it is difficult because normally Chelsea is a club that is involved in the European competitions, but at the moment we are not. I think we need to take advantage of the situation.”
