Uncertainty still surrounds the availability of several widely owned Fantasy Premier League assets this evening, with the Thursday and Friday press conferences not providing the unambiguous injury updates we had yearned for.
The 9% of FPL managers who own Luke Shaw (ยฃ5.1m) have had a rollercoaster week with one media report contradicting the other regarding his recovery from a concussion, and Friday was no different.
Jose Mourinho had effectively given Shaw the all-clear in his press conference earlier today, stating that the Manchester United medical department had declared him available for selection.
Mourinho himself, however, said that he “didn’t know” whether he would pick Shaw for the trip to Vicarage Road tomorrow and reports in the press this afternoon suggested the England full-back was not with the travelling party heading to Watford.
Those FPL bosses sitting on Ryan Fraser (ยฃ5.6m), Theo Walcott (ยฃ6.7m) and Wilfried Zaha (ยฃ7.0m) also face a nervous wait once the Gameweek 5 deadline passes, with little clear-cut information being offered by their respective club managers in the press gatherings today and yesterday.
Fraser picked up a hamstring injury while on duty with the Scottish national team over the international break and wasn’t pictured in training as of Wednesday this week.
Eddie Howe said Fraser was a concern for Saturday, though had been working with the club’s medical team in a bid to recover. Charlie Daniels (ยฃ4.5m) meanwhile hasn’t trained with the Cherries all week and is a big doubt for the visit of Leicester City.
Walcott and Zaha, at least, have been training with their respective clubs, though Roy Hodgson and Marco Silva stopped short of declaring their players 100% fit ahead of the weekend.
Silva claimed Walcott was “in contention” to play, while Hodgson said on Thursday that he would make a late decision on whether Zaha and James Tomkins (ยฃ4.4m) would feature against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.
Everton’s injury crisis at least shows signs of abating, with Bernard (ยฃ5.9m) and Dominic Calvert-Lewin (ยฃ5.4m) now available for selection – though Seamus Coleman (ยฃ5.4m) will be out for “one or two weeks”.
There was mixed news for three other England players injured before or during the international break, with Raheem Sterling (ยฃ11.0m) declared fit by Pep Guardiola earlier today but Dele Alli (ยฃ9.1m) and Adam Lallana (ยฃ6.9m) ruled out by their respective managers.
Mauricio Pochettino also confirmed that Hugo Lloris (ยฃ5.5m) would be out for “several weeks” with a thigh injury.
There was little to report concerning Chelsea’s likely starting XI against Cardiff City tomorrow, though Maurizio Sarri did suggest that Cesc Fabregas (ยฃ6.3m) may be fit enough for a place on the bench at Stamford Bridge.
Unai Emery’s press conference on Thursday was also thin on injury updates, though the Arsenal manager was quick to rubbish any rumours of a tiff with Mesut Ozil (ยฃ8.3m) – speculation that owners of Henrikh Mkhitaryan (ยฃ7.2m) might have hoped was true.
Arsenal are up against Newcastle United tomorrow, whose manager Rafael Benitez confirmed that Jonjo Shelvey (ยฃ5.4m) and Matt Ritchie (ยฃ5.9m) have recovered from their respective injuries to come back into contention.
Johann Berg Gudmundsson (ยฃ5.9m) and Stephen Ward (ยฃ4.9m) were declared fit to play against Wolves by Sean Dyche today, while his counterpart in the opposite dugout on Sunday – Nuno Espirito Santo – asserted that his returning international players were all “healthy”: good news for those worried about Raul Jimenez (ยฃ5.5m).
Jack Wilshere (ยฃ4.9m) was ruled out of West Ham’s trip to Everton with an ankle injury, meanwhile.
Neil Warnock was his usual loquacious self, effectively confirming that Danny Ward (a ยฃ4.5m-rated midfielder in FPL) and Bobby Reid (ยฃ5.4m) were his first-choice strike pairing for the time being.
Tom Cairney (ยฃ4.9m) remains out for Fulham, while Adama Diakhaby (ยฃ4.9m) is a minor doubt for Huddersfield. The Terriers’ goalkeeper Ben Hamer (ยฃ4.0m), however, appears to be back in contention to compete for Jonas Lossl‘s (ยฃ4.5m) starting spot.
Charlie Austin (ยฃ5.8m) and Shane Long (ยฃ4.9m) are minor doubts for Southampton, though Mark Hughes was more upbeat when discussing Danny Ings‘ (ยฃ5.6m) blister problems.
The Saints’ opponents on Monday night, Brighton, might have Florin Andone (ยฃ5.0m) – a potential threat to Glenn Murray (ยฃ6.5m) in the medium term – available for selection for the first time this season. There was no update provided by Chris Hughton about the knock picked up by Pascal Gross (ยฃ6.9m) in Gameweek 4, however.
There was little to report from Javi Gracia and Claude Puel’s pressers, though Caglar Soyuncu (ยฃ5.0m) is now fit and available for selection at centre-back for the Foxes.
More in-depth injury updates and predicted line-ups can be found in our Team News tab.
Become a Member and access our data
Memberships for the 2018/19 campaign are now available for the price of ยฃ15.
Join now to get the following:
- Plot your transfer strategies using the fully interactive Season Ticker.
- Get projections for every Premier League player provided by the Rate My Team statistical model.
- Use Rate My Team throughout the season to guide your selections and transfers.
- Get access to over 130+ exclusive members articles over the season.
- Analyse our OPTA-powered statistic tables specifically tailored for Fantasy Football Managers.
- Use our exclusive tool to build custom stats tables from over 100 OPTA player and team stats.
- View heatmaps and expected goals data for every player.
- Use our powerful comparison tool to analyse players head-to-head.
CLICK HERE TO BECOME A FANTASY FOOTBALL SCOUT MEMBER

