Chelsea boss Frank Lampard spoke at a press conference on Friday and gave an update on the club’s injured players.
Lampard confirmed that Tammy Abraham remains sidelined for this weekend’s game against Everton and replied “I hope so” when asked if the striker was likely to be back by the end of the month.
There was encouraging news on Christian Pulisic, who played in a practice game along with Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but the news on Callum Hudson-Odoi is not good.
Christian Pulisic
“It’s great to see Christian get some minutes. He’ll still short of match fitness but it’s the first time the injury has felt to a level where we could actually get him on a big pitch and a relatively competitive match.
“That’s a big step forward, hopefully. I’ll found out how it went. I just watched it.”
Ruben Loftus-Cheek
“Ruben played half of that game and is trying to find match fitness. He’s short of that – Ruben’s saying that himself and I can see that, so there’s work to be done with Ruben.”
Callum Hudson-Odoi
“He had a re-injury yesterday. We’re having a scan on him this afternoon, so he’ll be (out) longer than expected.
“It’s tough. He wasn’t rushed back. The signs were that he was fit to train – clearly we do that (assess a player’s fitness) with every player – and he re-injured in his first session with us.
“It’s frustrating for him, definitely – a young boy so keen to play, as you’d expect, and frustrating because it’s another injury for us.”
Mateo Kovacic
“Kovacic isn’t fit. His Achilles injury will take him out of the weekend and hopefully not long after that.”
Willian
“Willian. We’re assessing. He’s a question mark for Sunday.”