Chelsea are less than 24 hours away from returning to action after the international break, and the squad has been training in preparation for the trip to Leicester City.
Chelsea travel to the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon to face Leicester in the Premier League.
The Blues have been training at Cobham this week leading up to tomorrow’s game, with players slowly rejoining the group after representing their respective countries.
Enzo Maresca confirms Reece James is unavailable versus Leicester because of another hamstring injury. However, he’s the only individual definitely ruled out of Saturday’s game, so supporters will have to wait and see if there’s any more absentees after the head coach kept it vague in his press conference.
Jadon Sancho mocks Cole Palmer over training clip
Chelsea attackers Jadon Sancho and Cole Palmer are two players with potential asterisks by their name regarding fitness for the weekend. Sancho has missed several games recently through injury, while Palmer pulled out of England duty during the international break.
Fortunately, both have been spotted in training this week as part of the Blues squad.
During training footage shared via Chelsea’s official X account, Sancho can be seen nutmegging teammate Palmer by popping the ball through his legs during a rondo drill.
Sancho has since reacted to the training clip via his Instagram story to tease his Chelsea colleague.
He wrote: “Someone check on my boy, they never learn. @colepalmer10.”
Sancho and Palmer are expected to be fit to face Leicester, but will they both be in the starting line-up?
Palmer has started 11 out of 11 in the Premier League this campaign, so he looks like the first names on the team sheet. As for Sancho, he’s started four of his five appearances for Chelsea since his summer arrival, but his season was disrupted by a mixture of injury and selection a few weeks ago.
Can Jadon Sancho kick on at Chelsea?
It’s been stop-start for Sancho since he joined Chelsea from Manchester United on a season-long loan, but there’s been enough so far to suggest he can really help Enzo Maresca’s squad this season.
In five Blues matches, he’s contributed with three assists. The skilful 24-year-old winger has impressed both on and off the ball as well in glimpses.
Graeme Souness isn’t convinced by the quality of Chelsea’s Sancho, which is fair enough because he’s a shadow of the player that ripped it up in Germany with Borussia Dortmund as a youngster.
It would be great to see the English wide man rediscover his golden touch going into this festive schedule. For Sancho, he’ll have to be on top of his game due to competition from Chelsea teammates such as Pedro Neto, Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke to start.
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