Mauricio Pochettino has suggested that Chelsea will be missing each of Enzo Fernandez and Lesley Ugochukwu for Wednesday's Premier League fixture against Crystal Palace.
On Christmas Eve, the Blues went down by a 2-1 scoreline away at Wolverhampton Wanderers, posting their eighth defeat in 18 top-flight fixtures in 2023-24.
However, Chelsea left Molineux knowing that they would be without at least a further two players with Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling due to serve one-game bans for five yellow cards.
Furthermore, Ugochukwu - on his return from a muscle injury - suffered a hamstring issue and was forced to be withdrawn during the early stages of the second half.
The Frenchman joins Moises Caicedo and Fernandez on the sidelines with the pair having missed the trip to the West Midlands through illness and with a hernia respectively.
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With just a three-day turnaround before the meeting with the Eagles, Pochettino knows that time is against him having more of his previously-unavailable players back in contention.
Although the Argentine has hinted that Caicedo may be fit to play some part of the next game, he has ruled out Fernandez making a return and effectively dismissed the possibility of Ugochukwu being able to play.
Speaking to reporters, as quoted by football.london, Pochettino said: "No, Enzo no. But Mo, hopefully yes. Today he was better, yesterday [Saturday] he was a possibility – but it's a high fever. I hope he can train a little bit and be ready for Palace."
"With Lesley, we will assess him tomorrow, but I think he felt his hamstring again. I said in the press conference it is important how we reintroduce players, but we were forced because of the problem with Moises to play Lesley.
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"It's a difficult situation because now he's a player we're going to miss, we hope not for too much [time]. We need all of the players."
Pochettino is expected to be able to select Romeo Lavia in his squad for the second game in succession, but the Belgian youngster will not be considered for a start at this stage having not played any football since July.
If Caicedo is not passed fit, Pochettino has no other obvious alternative to partner Conor Gallagher in central midfield, perhaps having to call upon Ian Maatsen who has shown his versatility in other areas.
Chelsea head into the game in 11th position in the standings, eighth points adrift of sixth-placed West Ham United.
Darren Plant
