Mauricio Pochettino reveals triple Chelsea injury blow for Preston with Christopher Nkunku update
Mauricio Pochettino revealed that Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka will not be available to play for Chelsea against Preston in the FA Cup third round tie on Saturday despite returning to full team training this week. The pair have both been missing since October.
The Blues are still dealing with a large number of injuries having lost Reece James, Marc Cucurella and Robert Sanchez in recent weeks. Romeo Lavia, Benoit Badiashile, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu are all out the game too.
«Chilwell and Carney are not available for tomorrow,» he said on Friday. «We will see for the next game, Middlesbrough or Fulham. They are doing well, we are happy with their evolution.
»Lavia is recovering after his injury. We don't know when he will return. Problem in his quad during the game against Palace." He continued: «Benoit I think is going to be available next week.»
Chelsea have been working without a key set of players for large portions of this season and were only able to welcome Lavia back for half an hour at home to Crystal Palace last month. The Belgian made his debut for the club in the second half but picked up a knock towards the end of the game and missed the clash at Luton last weekend.
There are even more issues for Pochettino too with Nkunku ruled out of the game. It leaves Chelsea with Armando Broja as the only senior striker in the squad after Nicolas Jackson joined up with his Senegal teammates for the African Cup of Nations.
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«Armando, it's a possibility to play for him,» Pochettino admitted. «I am going to tell you Christoph
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