Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that the club's injury list has only increased ahead of Thursday's Premier League fixture against Tottenham Hotspur.
Pochettino has been forced to deal with injuries to his players throughout the 2023-24 campaign, rarely having his desire first-choice starting lineup at his disposal.
However, Chelsea have reached a stage where their treatment room has not been as populated as it is now, with 12 players having been unavailable for Saturday's trip to Aston Villa.
In the minutes before Pochettino's press conference on Wednesday, the club released an updated list with Thiago Silva and Axel Disasi added.
Silva is described as undergoing a "rehabilitation programme" for a groin injury, while Disasi is said to be undergoing "medical assessment".
"Not good news" on Chelsea injuries
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Initially, it appeared that Chelsea would be in a stronger position with regards to their team selection with the update revealing that Levi Colwill and Christopher Nkunku had returned to team training, a step up from partial training.
Colwill has not featured since the opening days in March due to a toe injury, while Nkunku has been absent since sustaining a hamstring problem during the EFL Cup final at the end of February.
Nevertheless, Pochettino opened his media briefing ahead of the Spurs game by revealing that no players would be returning to the squad.
Speaking to reporters, he said: "Not good news because we cannot recover any player from the last list. Only we need to add two players more, Thiago and Disasi will not be available for tomorrow."
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How will latest injuries impact on Chelsea?
The substitutes' bench selected for the game at Villa featured just two outfield players that have started games in the Premier League in Alfie Gilchrist and Disasi.
With Silva dropping out of the team, Trevoh Chalobah appears in line to revert back to central defence with Gilchrist taking his spot at right-back.
As a result of Disasi having to be replaced among the replacements, everything points to Chelsea having a bench with no players who have a top-flight start between them.
That could plausibly only change if Cesare Casadei is brought into midfield, Conor Gallagher is used in a more advanced role and one of Noni Madueke or Mykhaylo Mudryk drop to the bench.
Mudryk has failed to make an impact against either Arsenal or Villa, so such a scenario may be more realistic than perceived, but Casadei has so far accumulated just 40 minutes of Premier League football across seven substitute appearances.
Darren Plant
