Seven Premier League press conferences were held on Friday ahead of the earlier-than-usual Gameweek 27 deadline.
Two well-owned Fantasy Premier League defenders made the headlines for different reasons, as Roy Hodgson and Nuno Espirito Santo provided us with injury updates ahead of their respective matches this weekend.
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Crystal Palace will be without Aaron Wan-Bissaka (hamstring) for the trip to Leicester, with Martin Kelly (muscle) also sidelined for the Saturday evening kick-off.
Hodgson said:
We won’t have Aaron Wan-Bissaka, he’s still recovering from the hamstring problem that he’s been suffering from, and we won’t have Martin Kelly, who picked up a slight muscle strain in the game against Doncaster.
We don’t think it’s a long-term injury, but unfortunately, he’s not recovered from that.
They’re the two injury problems we have.
The Palace added that he “hoped” neither injury was serious, though no timeframe was put on Wan-Bissaka’s return.
There was more positive news on Matt Doherty and Diogo Jota (both knocks), however, with Santo simply saying “everyone is OK” when asked for the latest update on the Wolves’ injury situation.
There were developments ahead of Sunday’s clash at Old Trafford, meanwhile.
Seven days after ruling Anthony Martial (groin) and Jesse Lingard (hamstring) out for “two to three weeks”, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gave this latest update on the midfield pair:
I hope and think Anthony will be ready and I hope Jesse will be ready because it’s two different injuries.
So maybe more hope than think, with Anthony as well, but he’s got a chance. Anyway, we still hope Jesse could be ready. Let’s see. We’ve still got a couple of days’ training left and they need to be part of it.
They’ve not been part of it yet, but they’ve been doing some recovery work and Anthony’s was a different muscle, of course, so we think that he might be ready and hope that Jesse will.
Jurgen Klopp confirmed that Dejan Lovren (muscle) and Joe Gomez (leg) will again be unavailable, though other than those two defenders and long-term absentee Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee) the Reds have a clean bill of health.
Unai Emery gave a brief press conference after Arsenal’s victory over BATE last night, with the club today confirming that Ainsley Maitland-Niles (illness) and Laurent Koscielny (muscle) will be assessed ahead of the visit of Southampton.
Koscielny was forced off in that Europa League victory but Emery said:
I think it’s a precaution. We are going to wait until tomorrow. I hope he is OK for Sunday. It’s muscular. He started to feel not good.
Emery had the following to say on Mesut Ozil‘s performance against the Belorussian side, meanwhile:
Well, I said to him to carry on and be available like today and the last two weeks to continue training and also continuing helping us. Today I am happy and this is the way we want with him.
We are going to play a lot of matches and maybe sometimes we need him in the starting XI and maybe can be on the bench. In the combination with some players is good, like with Matteo Guendouzi, in the attacking third with Mkhi, with Iwobi.
The Saints will again be without Danny Ings (hamstring) and Mario Lemina (abdomen) for the trip to the Emirates, though Michael Obafemi (tendon) and Stuart Armstrong (calf) are back in contention after resuming training.
Bournemouth will assess Junior Stanislas (thigh) ahead of the visit of Wolves but David Brooks (ankle) and Callum Wilson (knee) remain out – Eddie Howe said those two players are “some way” from a return.
Jonjo Shelvey has resumed training for Newcastle, meaning that only Ciaran Clark (knock) and Rob Elliot (back) are absent.
Yesterday’s Injury News
The eight press conferences that were held yesterday were covered in last night’s round-up, which can be explored in more detail here.
Harry Kane (ankle) and Ben Davies (groin) will be assessed by Spurs ahead of their trip to Turf Moor, though Dele Alli (hamstring) remains out for another one to two weeks.
Burnley will again be without Steven Defour (calf), Aaron Lennon (knee) and Jonathan Walters (Achilles), though Sean Dyche confirmed on Thursday that Johann Berg Gudmundsson and Robbie Brady are fit to feature.
Leicester will check on James Maddison and Ben Chilwell, who Claude Puel said on Thursday had picked up injuries that were “not serious”.
Manuel Lanzini (knee) and Samir Nasri (calf) have returned to training for West Ham United, while Alfie Mawson (knee) was the only injury-related absentee reported by Claudio Ranieri in his presser.
Kiko Femenia (hamstring) will miss out for Watford against Cardiff, while Jose Holebas begins a two-match ban for collecting ten yellow cards.
Roberto Pereyra (hamstring) and Isaac Success (hamstring) are back in contention, however.
Sean Morrison (appendix) has returned to training for the Bluebirds but is still a major doubt, while Huddersfield welcome back Jonas Lossl and Chris Lowe from illness.
Full team news and predicted line-ups are available as usual on the Team News tab, while our video round-up can be viewed below:
