Chelsea and boss Mauricio Pochettino confirmed four new injury issues ahead of Burnley’s visit to Stamford Bridge, including Ben Chilwell who picked up a knock on England duty. The Argentine appeared less than impressed with Gareth Southgate over his use of the left-back in recent friendlies against Brazil and Belgium.
Chilwell was the only specialist left-back called up to Southgate’s squad, with Manchester United’s Luke Shaw absent through injury. Though Joe Gomez and Rico Lewis can operate in that position, Southgate opted to give the Blues vice-captain two starts instead.
And in the final moments of the second friendly, Chilwell suffered a knock to his knee that has put his participation in doubt against Burnley. Pochettino struggled to hide his disappointment that his injury crisis has grown even larger, with as many as 10 players potentially unavailable.
“We still need to assess a few players like Chilwell after playing two games,” Pochettino said. “I think he got a knock in his knee. Today, he wasn’t ready to train. We will see what will happen tomorrow if he can be in the squad. Enzo (Fernandez) has still not arrived.”
Pochettino was then asked if he was surprised that Chilwell played in both England friendlies after only recently recovering from an injury, to which he replied with a subtle dig at Southgate.
“Surprised, not surprised, I don’t know,” he added. “If he cannot play with us or be available, because he didn’t play after Brentford with us. He played a few minutes against Leicester. He started two games. Yeah, maybe, it’s a surprise for us. But it’s bad luck because he got a dead leg in the last moment of the game against Belgium.”
The club also confirmed that Trevoh Chalobah, Robert Sanchez and Carney Chukwuemeka were new injury concerns and are doubtful to face Burnley.
Meanwhile, even though despite a “disappointed” Cole Palmer was unable to get on the pitch for England, Pochettino confirmed that he had returned to training and as long as he comes through Friday’s session unscathed, he will feature against Burnley.
“I was talking with him, he’s a little bit disappointed because he cannot play or perform with the national team,” Pochettino revealed.
“The first game he had a small problem and I think he thought he could play against Belgium but he didn’t play. Now he is okay and training well. Still one more training session tomorrow but if he responds tomorrow in the same way, he will be available on Saturday.”