Frank Lampard provided an update on Tammy Abraham (£7.9m) in his Tuesday press conference.
However, his owners may have wanted more concrete information ahead of Tuesday’s Gameweek 15 deadline.
The Chelsea manager said that Abraham would be given “every chance” of being fit to face Aston Villa but that he would have to make a judgement call on Wednesday.
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“Yeah (he’s coming along) okay. We’re giving him every possible chance to be fit. He’s still got some pain in the area of the injury so we’ll make a judgement call tomorrow. It’s one of those, it’s painful for him. So it’s a bit of a pain threshold thing, does it affect his movements? As I said, I wouldn’t want to commit today. I think for players that are important we try to give as much time. We need them to be keen, he’s keen and is trying his best. If he’s not (fit) then we have to go a different route anyway.” – Frank Lampard
While such an update is not quite as clear cut as Fantasy managers would have liked, there is still reason to be positive about Abraham’s fitness, enough perhaps to hold onto the striker.
“Players have to come in to anytime. In the modern day, I am not the only one to have that situation, you have to trust the professionalism of the players. Everyone is a human and wants to play every week.” – Frank Lampard
Dean Smith was much more prescriptive as he prepares to come to Stamford Bridge.
Anwar El Ghazi (£5.5m) has been ruled out after coming off injured at Manchester United while Jota (£5.8m) will be ready to play in Gameweek 15.
“Anwar (El Ghazi) won’t be available for tomorrow. He’s had a scan and it’s pretty clear. He’s still got pain on the side of the leg. I’m hopeful he’ll be fit for the Leicester game on Sunday. Jota is back to full fitness, so he comes back into the squad and is pushing for a starting place Wednesday night. No other concerns, everyone else is fully fit.” – Dean Smith
Thankfully, there are very few fresh or ambiguous injury concerns to worry about ahead of Liverpool and Everton’s Wednesday evening derby.
The Reds will be without Joel Matip (£5.3m) once again, while Alisson (£6.0m) misses out through suspension.
The Blue side of Merseyside will probably be without Seamus Coleman (£5.3m) and Fabian Delph (£5.3m) but Theo Walcott (£6.2m) has recovered in time.
Those looking to the Wolves attack may be a little disappointed to hear of developments at West Ham.
Manager Manuel Pellegrini has confirmed that David Martin (£4.0m), arguably the man of the match against Chelsea in Gameweek 14, will keep his place ahead of Roberto (£4.4m), who has been woefully poor of late.
“Yes, [David Martin] will start. Goalkeeper is a special position. He didn’t have much match experience but unfortunately for Roberto, he was not doing well.” – Manuel Pellegrini
Meanwhile, Paul Pogba (£8.4m) was ruled out of Gameweek 15 by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer who still believes the midfielder is not ready just yet.
“(Pogba) is not ready, no. He’s still a bit away but working hard so let’s see, out on the grass, let’s see how long it will take.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
However, the Red Devils could be boosted ahead of a meeting with Jose Mourinho’s Spurs side by a potential return for either Scott McTominay (£5.1m) or Nemanja Matic (£4.8m).
“(McTominay and Matic) are touch and go but let’s get this training session out of the window. We’ve got more games than this one. We can’t look at just the one game, we have to look at long-term.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
On the other side of the Old Trafford clash, Spurs will be without Ben Davies (£5.4m), Erik Lamela (£5.7m) as well as goalkeeping pair Hugo Lloris (£5.3m) and Michel Vorm (£4.4m).
Norwich’s defensive problems could continue to abate as they received more welcome news ahead of Gameweek 15.
Defensive midfielder Alex Tettey (£4.5m) will be back in the matchday squad after recovering from a slight muscle complaint that kept him out of Gameweek 14.
It will be interesting to see if his presence and the ongoing impact of Christoph Zimmermann‘s (£4.4m) return will hamper the in-form Danny Ings (£6.2m).
Arsenal’s upcoming opponents Brighton may be able to welcome back Bernardo (£4.3m) to the first-team as he returned to the squad this week although Solly March (£4.7m) and Jose Izquierdo (£5.4m) were ruled out.
Interim Arsenal manager Freddie Ljungberg, who was very late for his Tuesday press conference, gave no specific injury updates on his squad.
Sofiane Boufal (£5.5m) is a doubt once again for Southampton after his toe injury got worse against Watford.
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