We’ve got all the big Fantasy Premier League (FPL) injury news from Friday’s pre-match press conferences in this ‘live’ article – including the latest on Darwin Nunez (£8.9m).
A total of 14 Premier League managers will face the media today but there could also be embargoed quotes released from Graham Potter’s post-Fulham presser, which was held on Thursday evening.
Five managers faced the media on Thursday, with the notable information here.
KEY UPDATES FROM FRIDAY’S PRESSERS
- Liverpool: Darwin injury “not major”
- Manchester City: Stones still not fit
- Manchester United: Dalot out, Martial to be assessed
- Arsenal: Arteta “thinks” Saka will be OK
- Tottenham Hotspur: Kulusevski “ready”
- Newcastle United: Isak won’t be rushed
- Fulham: Mitrovic returns from suspension
- Brentford: Toney fit – and will start
- Crystal Palace: Mitchell available again
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Trossard’s attitude questioned
- Wolverhampton Wanderers: Late call on Costa
- Everton: Patterson among players sidelined
- West Ham United: No injury updates from Moyes
- Bournemouth: Smith banned, “late calls” to be made
FRIDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
LIVERPOOL
Jurgen Klopp confirmed on Friday morning that there is indeed an injury affecting Darwin Nunez, following media reports on Thursday that the Uruguayan was a big doubt for Gameweek 20.
Predictably, there wasn’t a timeframe offered or indeed a definite yes/no on whether the striker would be able to face Brighton and Hove Albion, although Klopp’s quotes suggest there is some concern for this weekend:
“If he cannot train today, then yes, that would rule him out. So we are waiting for more information. It’s not a major one but it has still kept him out of training. So we have to wait for that.” – Jurgen Klopp on Darwin Nunez
There was another line on Darwin towards the end of Klopp’s presser, when the Liverpool boss was grilled on potential further recruits up top.
“In the moment, four of our offensive players are injured, our strikers. So we don’t buy another one. They will come back, thankfully, not tomorrow, but they will come back – Darwin soon, the others a little bit later. And we have seven strikers then!” – Jurgen Klopp
Roberto Firmino (calf) has had a setback in his recovery, meanwhile, and isn’t close to a comeback.
“In the first moment, it was like a little injury, estimated 10 days, two weeks. Did the normal rehab stuff, our experts told us what we can do. Then Bobby felt again something, that kept him out obviously for longer. I don’t know exactly when he’ll be back but he’s not close to team training.” – Jurgen Klopp on Roberto Firmino
Virgil van Dijk (hamstring), Arthur (muscle), Diogo Jota (hamstring) and Luis Diaz (knee) remain out but James Milner (hamstring) and Stefan Bajcetic (hip) are back in training.
MANCHESTER CITY
John Stones will miss at least the first instalment of Manchester City’s Double Gameweek 20, although details of whatever is affecting him are thin on the ground.
“He’s not ready. I think everyone [else] is fit.” – Pep Guardiola
MANCHESTER UNITED
Diogo Dalot is unavailable for the Manchester derby on Saturday, while Anthony Martial will be assessed for a small leg injury that has affected his ability to train this week.
“I think Diogo Dalot is not available and Anthony Martial, he trained this morning so we have to wait to see how he recovers from this training and if he’s available. That will be decided tomorrow.
“It is a small thing in his leg [with Martial] and, whether tomorrow or otherwise, he will be available for Wednesday [at Crystal Palace] I think.” – Erik ten Hag
ARSENAL
Having previously said Bukayo Saka was “fine” after his enforced substitution at Oxford United on Monday, Mikel Arteta introduced the slightest element of doubt to keep everyone guessing ahead of the north London derby.
“I think he will be okay, yes.” – Mikel Arteta on Bukayo Saka
Gabriel Jesus (knee) and Reiss Nelson (muscle) remain on the injury list but Emile Smith Rowe made his long-awaited return as a substitute in midweek.
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Antonio Conte said on Friday that he “thinks” Dejan Kulusevski (muscle) will be “ready to play” but added that the club wouldn’t “take risks” with Rodrigo Bentancur (groin) and Richarlison (hamstring), who are nevertheless nearing a comeback and will be assessed in training.
“For sure, the situation is going to improve, especially for Deki, for Kulusevski. He had a training session in the last few days with us. I think he’s going to be ready to play.
“About Richy and Rodrigo, both situations are improving. I think in this moment Deki is much more ready to play and especially don’t take risks. For us, it is very, very important to have patience, especially because we lost these important players for a long period, and then now to accelerate the process to recover, [we] risk losing them again for a long period.
“We have another training session tomorrow to monitor it well, the situation with Rodrigo and Richy.” – Antonio Conte
Lucas Moura (tendon) remains out.
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Matt Targett (heel), Jonjo Shelvey (calf) and Emil Krafth (knee) are the only players on the Newcastle injury list ahead of the visit of Fulham, with Alexander Isak making his comeback from injury in the two domestic cup matches over the last week.
Given his length of absence, however, it looks like we’ll only be seeing him appear as a substitute in the short term.
“He’s responded very well physically – there’ve been no ill effects. He’s trained well this week off the back of that cameo (against Leicester on Tuesday). I think we have to be very careful with him, just with the length of time he’d been out and the type of injury that he had.
“He’s done all the work, he’s looked in good condition, he’s looked confident and he’s very keen to be involved. But I think we need him for the long term, and it’s great to have a very strong choice in the centre-forward unit at the moment.” – Eddie Howe on Alexander Isak
Eddie Howe meanwhile said he was “not sure” whether Joelinton would feature on Sunday after the Brazilian was hit by a drink-driving charge this week.
FULHAM
Aleksandar Mitrovic is free to face his old club after serving a one-game ban for yellow card accumulation in midweek but Fulham have lost another player to suspension, with Antonee Robinson unavailable in Gameweek 20 for the same reason.
Marco Silva was miffed at the Premier League schedulers, with the trip to Newcastle falling less than 72 hours after the Cottagers beat Chelsea.
“The way they scheduled the Chelsea game for a Thursday night is difficult to understand. After such a busy schedule, after the World Cup playing almost a game every three days, they decided to put our game against Chelsea on a Thursday night.” – Marco Silva
Neeskens Kebano (Achilles) remains out and Shane Duffy is a doubt because of illness.
BRENTFORD
Thomas Frank not only told us that Ivan Toney (muscle) was fit to face Bournemouth but that he would start, too.
“Ivan is fit and available and will start tomorrow, so I just named one out of 11.” – Thomas Frank
Pontus Jansson (hamstring), Shandon Baptiste (muscle), Frank Onyeka (hamstring) and Aaron Hickey (match fitness) remain out.
CRYSTAL PALACE
There don’t seem to be any fresh injury concerns for the Eagles, who welcome Tyrick Mitchell back from a three-match ban.
Patrick Vieira added that “everybody from the last game has trained all week”, so it could again just be long-term absentees James McArthur (groin) and Nathan Ferguson (match fitness) sitting the Chelsea game out.
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Leandro Trossard won’t be considered for selection for tomorrow’s game, with boss Roberto De Zerbi questioning the Belgian’s attitude after being omitted for the FA Cup game at Middlesbrough last weekend.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Long-term absentees Boubacar Traore (hamstring), Pedro Neto (ankle), Chiquinho (knee) and Sasa Kalajdzic (knee) remain out, while there’ll be a late call on Diego Costa after the veteran striker missed out on the last few games with a minor issue.
EVERTON
James Garner (back), Andros Townsend (knee), Michael Keane (knee) and Nathan Patterson (knee) are all on the injury list ahead of the Southampton game but Frank Lampard reported on Friday that Dominic Calvert-Lewin has come through the busy Christmas period unscathed.
Alex Iwobi (ankle) had previously been ruled out for weeks by his manager but the injury is not as serious as first thought and Everton could even have him back tomorrow.
WEST HAM UNITED
There have been no reported team news updates from David Moyes so far, although it could be that his injury round-up came in an embargoed section of his presser – and we won’t get that till after the FPL deadline.
Gianluca Scamacca (knee), Alphonse Areola (hip) and Manuel Lanzini (groin) all missed the FA Cup win over Brentford with apparently minor issues, while Vladimir Coufal sustained a knock in Gameweek 19 and Kurt Zouma (knee) and Maxwel Cornet (calf) are longer-term absentees.
BOURNEMOUTH
Gary O’Neil gave some vague-sounding team news in his pre-match presser, saying that the Cherries will make “a couple of late calls”.
Adam Smith is definitely out through suspension, while Murara Neto (hamstring), David Brooks (hamstring), Marcus Tavernier (hamstring), Ryan Fredericks (“slight issue”) and Junior Stanislas (“slight issue”) have all been sidelined of late and may be among the names O’Neil alluded to above.
