Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior has provided the latest injury update ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash at Everton.
The Blues head into the clash in poor form, having lost their last three matches across all competitions. They suffered a 3-0 home defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 second-leg clash in midweek and were eliminated on an 8-2 aggregate scoreline.
The two-time European champions are also struggling with injuries and have several players ruled out of the trip to the Hill Dickinson Stadium this weekend.
England defender Trevoh Chalobah is set to miss several weeks of action after being stretchered off with an ankle injury following a challenge with Achraf Hakimi in Tuesday’s defeat to PSG.
The 26-year-old has been one of Chelsea’s most reliable players this season, logging the third-highest number of minutes and will be a major miss going into the final weeks of the season.
Speaking in Thursday’s pre-match press conference, Rosenior eased concerns over a long-term issue, but confirmed Chalobah will be sidelined for a while.
“Obviously, it’s never good that Trevoh is out for any period of time, but fortunately, it’s not as serious as we first feared”, the Englishman stated.
“It’s still a serious injury, but we’re looking at a period of six weeks, which is disappointing, but from where we were a couple of days ago, straight after the game, we are in a better place than we thought.”
Captain Reece James is also unavailable after picking up a hamstring injury in last weekend’s league defeat to Newcastle United.
The England international had only recently signed a long-term contract extension, but has now been ruled out with injury once again and will miss this weekend’s fixture.
“With Reece, we’re going to look more after the international break. It’s not serious, but there is something in his hamstring [scan], and it’s something we’ll monitor after the international break.”
Goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen is another absentee. The Danish shot-stopper is recovering from a groin problem that required minor surgery and has already missed the team’s last two matches.
“Unfortunately, Filip had his scan and needed a minor operation, nothing too serious again, it’s a matter of weeks”, Rosenior added.
However, there is a bit of positive news as Levi Colwill has returned to first-team training after a long spell out with an ACL injury suffered during pre-season.
While he is not yet close to playing, there is hope he could feature before the end of the season.
“With an ACL [recovery], he is hitting all the benchmarks he needs to, but we need to keep making sure he is going past certain levels.
“It’s brilliant to have his presence back on the training pitch, and while we want to see him back out there on the pitch as soon as possible, it has to be within the right timeframe. He’s still looking at a good while [before returning to first-team action] yet. Hopefully, that can be this season, which would be a massive boost”, the Chelsea boss concluded.
Despite their current struggles, Chelsea will take some confidence from their recent record against Everton, maintaining an unbeaten run in their last four meetings.
They will be hoping that run continues as they look to get their season back on track and keep their Champions League hopes alive.
