Frank Lampard has ruled out Reece James, Andreas Christensen, and N’Golo Kante ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup clash against Morecambe due to injuries.
Chelsea have five academy players who have been training with the first team, to help cover for the injured trio.
The positive news is that both James’s and Christensen’s injuries are not thought to be serious.
James already missed the Aston Villa and Man City games but is very close to returning, according to Lampard.
“Reece James is out for the game, although he will be training with us tomorrow,” he told the reporters in his press conference on Friday (via Chelsea’s official YouTube channel).
“The same as Andreas Christensen and N’Golo Kante.
“[Kante has] a minor hamstring injury which means he [is going to] miss this game and is suspended for the Fulham game anyway.”
Christensen is another player who is now on the verge of making a comeback, which is ‘good news’ according to Lampard.
The Blues boss also intriguingly claimed that Christensen’s injury came during the 1-1 draw with Aston Villa in December.
This is interesting because the Denmark international received a lot of criticism for staying down after the incident which eventually led to the Villa equaliser, including from Chelsea legend John Terry.
“The injury was absolutely from that moment in the Villa game, and it was probably typical modern-day reactions where Christian takes stick,” he said.
“The injury isn’t too bad which is good news for him. He should be back training with us tomorrow.”
Even with the injury problems, Chelsea still go into tomorrow’s game as heavy favourites against League Two side Morecambe.