We’ll be getting team news from 14 Premier League managers on Friday as we count down to Gameweek 16.
As ever, we’ll bring you the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) injury updates on this page.
This is a ‘live’ article, so it’ll be updated as and when manager quotes become available. Keep refreshing for the latest news!
For the headlines from the six pressers held already, read our Thursday round-up here.
GAMEWEEK 16: FRIDAY’S KEY TEAM NEWS UPDATES
- Arsenal: Gabriel a possibility to return, Calafiori set to miss out again
- Liverpool: Jota + Chiesa could return to the squad, Mac Allister suspended, Alisson fit
- Manchester City: Akanji injury details, Lewis banned, Pep on what he plans to do in defence
- Aston Villa: Call to made on Watkins after training, Bailey expected to miss out
- Newcastle United: Wilson out for eight weeks, Pope + Willock doubts, Botman nearing return
- Tottenham Hotspur: Romero, van de Ven + Davies latest, two banned, Johnson recovers
- Chelsea: No real team news from Maresca, Neto banned
- Manchester United: Shaw out, Evans training, no major new concerns, Amorim on Onana
- Bournemouth: Tavernier joins the injury list, Senesi out for “months”
- Brighton and Hove Albion: Veltman “50/50”, others less likely, March pushing
- Brentford: Jensen + Nunes not ready, Janelt could return, Ajer ready to start
- West Ham United: Emerson banned, two “issues”, Lopetegui on Antonio
- Crystal Palace: Small setback for Wharton, Ward a doubt, Franca still out
- Wolverhampton Wanderers: Sa + Sarabia to miss out, Gomes banned
GAMEWEEK 16: FRIDAY’S PRESS CONFERENCE TIMES
🚨 Friday’s #FPL Press Conferences
🕊️ 9am – Hurzeler
🔴 9.15am – Slot
⚫️ 9.30am – Howe
🐓 11.30am – Postecoglou
🔵 12.30pm – Guardiola
🧿 1pm – Maresca
🍒 1pm – Iraola
🐺 1.15pm – O’Neil
⚒️ 1.15pm – Lopetegui
👹 1.30pm – Amorim
⭕️ 1.30pm – Arteta
🐝 1.30pm Frank
🦅… pic.twitter.com/YbIQ65qV2M— Fantasy Football Scout (@FFScout) December 13, 2024
ARSENAL
Gabriel Magalhaes (muscle) could return this weekend but Riccardo Calafiori (groin) looks set to miss out again.
“There is a possibility for one of them to be available. He trained today. We will see tomorrow.
“Yes, [it’s Gabriel].” – Mikel Arteta on Gabriel Magalhaes and Riccardo Calafiori
“We are just respecting the times that the medical department has said and then we’ll just monitor his evolution every single day. We understand he is not fully ready yet but he is getting very close now.” – Mikel Arteta on Riccardo Calafiori
Elsewhere, Oleksandr Zinchenko sat out Gameweek 15 with an unspecified injury and didn’t play in the UEFA Champions League.
He looks set to miss out again, along with Ben White (knee) and Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee).
“No one apart from the ones that were already out.” – Mikel Arteta on whether anyone else was ruled out
Thomas Partey and Jurrien Timber did feature on Wednesday despite missing training earlier in the week. The latter was only a substitute, however.
LIVERPOOL
Federico Chiesa (unknown injury + illness) and Diogo Jota (rib) could return to the Liverpool squad this weekend.
The pair are back in training, while Chiesa featured for the under-21s last week.
“I think they are [available]. We have one training session to go. Federico missed quite a lot for a long time, was ill last week, so we have to wait and see how he is exactly doing.
“But maybe Diogo is in the squad and maybe Federico as well but that depends a bit on the numbers we have and also how he recovered from his illness.” – Arne Slot on Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa
Slot went on to say that Chiesa could feature against Southampton in the EFL Cup next week – so that could be a timely rest for Mohamed Salah ahead of a busy Gameweek 17-19 period.
“What makes it difficult is that we play so many games. What he needs is playing time and the problem is if you haven’t played for five or six months, it is sometimes difficult for a manager to give him his first minutes because you don’t exactly know what you can expect.
“Yes, I see him on the training ground, but ideally you see him in a friendly during the week or you see him in an under-21 game or something like this – but that is not the situation we have, we play so many games.
“Maybe the Southampton game might be a good moment for him to get some playing minutes and then we know a bit better what we can expect from him. Of course, we see his qualities, we know his qualities but he needs to get this fitness level.
“If you only have training sessions, that is not the same as playing time. So, you need to have playing time to reach certain fitness levels. But if you are competing for the league and competing in the Champions League it’s not always easy to find these minutes, unless we are sometimes 4-0 or 5-0 up. But for the whole season I think it was only once, against Bournemouth at home, 3-0 up at half-time. For the rest, it’s been a struggle or a fight until the last second of every game.” – Arne Slot
Alisson returned from a hamstring injury to start in Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League win over Girona.
That leaves only Ibrahima Konate (knee), Conor Bradley (hamstring) and Kostas Tsimikas (foot) on the injury list.
Tsimikas looks like he will return soon, however, after being spotted doing ball work on Thursday.
Alexis Mac Allister belatedly serves a one-match ban for yellow card accumulation, meanwhile. That was due to be served in the Merseyside derby last weekend before its postponement.
MANCHESTER CITY
It doesn’t look like Manuel Akanji (pelvis/adductor) will be fit for the Manchester derby this weekend.
Given that Pep Guardiola talked of having only three defenders fit, John Stones (foot) seems to still be sidelined too.
Nathan Ake (hamstring) is out, as well, while Rico Lewis – who Guardiola called his “most consistent player” – is banned following his Gameweek 15 red card.
“He has discomfort in the area of the pelvis, the adductor. It doesn’t feel good. He made an incredible effort playing in Bournemouth. Him and Nathan [Ake] weren’t even at half of their best but helped us to play there.
“After, he had to step back and said, ‘I have to recover, otherwise I cannot be’. Manu is a strong player and is so reliable but in that moment, cannot be there.” – Pep Guardiola on Manuel Akanji
“I don’t know, I don’t know what I have to do! I need players, I have three. We will see what happens today and tomorrow, and the players we have and we will think about it.
“Maybe some winger has to play as a full-back, or Matheus [Nunes] maybe can play as a full-back, or maybe play with five in the back where our wing-backs are wingers. I don’t know. We are thinking what to do for the situation that we have just three central defenders.
“But the soul and the spirit of this team is there.” – Pep Guardiola on what he plans to do in defence
Longer-term absentees Oscar Bobb (leg) and Rodri (knee) remain unavailable, meanwhile.
Phil Foden (bronchitis) and Mateo Kovacic (unknown) were back in the squad for the Juventus game on Wednesday. Both remained unused substitutes.
ASTON VILLA
Jacob Ramsey (hamstring) remains out for weeks yet, while Leon Bailey (hamstring) is also expected to miss Gameweek 16 after hobbling off last weekend.
The midweek win over RB Leipzig came at a possible further cost, with Ollie Watkins replaced at the interval with “a small injury”.
Unai Emery said a call would be made after training on Friday.
“I don’t know because we are waiting. Yesterday he was recovering, today in the afternoon we are going to train. If he is training normally, if he is feeling good, he is going to be available for tomorrow. If not, not.” – Unai Emery on Ollie Watkins
Amadou Onana (knee) returned to the Aston Villa squad on Tuesday, at least.
NEWCASTLE UNITED
Eddie Howe confirmed that Callum Wilson (hamstring) would be out for around two months after the striker suffered yet another injury blow this week.
“The injury is not long, long-term, it’s roughly around an eight-week injury we think. All being well he will be back [well before the end of the season].” – Eddie Howe on Callum Wilson
Joe Willock (hamstring), who missed out in Gameweek 15, and Nick Pope (knee) are doubts, too.
“Joe Willock we haven’t seen training yet but is making good progress.” – Eddie Howe
“He’s carried a knee injury this week. Initially, we thought it was nothing. So I think he’s seeking some specialist opinion today and then we’ll see if he’s available for tomorrow.” – Eddie Howe on Nick Pope
Jamaal Lascelles (knee), Sven Botman (knee) and Emil Krafth (collarbone) remain on the sidelines, too. Botman is at least back in training and a comeback is on the horizon.
“I think the plan is late December/very early January at the earliest that he will be available for the first team.” – Eddie Howe on Sven Botman
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR
Cristian Romero (hamstring) and Micky van de Ven (hamstring) were re-added to the injury list earlier this week.
The pair returned in Gameweek 15 but picked up fresh issues, with Ange Postecoglou ruling them out for “the next period of games”.
Ben Davies (hamstring), Guglielmo Vicario (ankle), Richarlison (hamstring), Wilson Odobert (hamstring), and Mikey Moore (virus) remain sidelined, too.
Rodrigo Bentancur serves game five of a seven-match suspension, while Yves Bissouma is banned for yellow card accumulation.
Brennan Johnson came off ill in the loss to Chelsea but recovered to feature against Rangers on Thursday.
“No [more news on van de Ven and Romero], mate.
“Obviously, when guys get injured and without getting too technical, you need the injury to settle down before you get a real prognosis so it will probably be next week some time with Micky and Cristian.
“Everyone got through last night, so they are all good to go. Biss is suspended this weekend, so he’ll miss out. Everyone else is sort of as it currently stands.” – Ange Postecoglou
“It is not as bad as we thought. There is a chance he will be back hopefully before the New Year, so that was positive again.
“Initially, we were a bit worried about it, but again you need to give it a week just to settle down, and the latest information I got this morning was that it’s nowhere near as bad as we might have thought it was and hopefully a quicker turnaround for him.” – Ange Postecoglou on Ben Davies
Postecoglou doubled down on his post-match criticism/assessment of Timo Werner, meanwhile.
“No, it wasn’t criticism. It was assessment. If we played poorly, we played poorly.
“With Timo, it wasn’t about whether he played well or not. We had a real difficult game last night. I’m asking 18-year-olds to do some massive jobs. He’s a senior player, he’s an international, he’s won the Champions League. There’s a level of application and performance you need to rise to, to help the team. He didn’t reach that. I think me taking him off at half-time was a statement enough.
“It wasn’t criticism, it was just an assessment of his performance. On a really challenging night for us – which we knew going into it – he needs to be better.
“We’re in a fight here. I’m not going to go away worrying about people’s bruised egos.
“If there’s somebody in the dressing room who’s fit, able to contribute, who feels he needs something extra in this moment, he’s probably not the right type.
“I’m not going to go around trying to get extra out of people. If they don’t give extra right now, it kind of gives me an indication of where we’re at.” – Ange Postecoglou on Timo Werner
CHELSEA
Enzo Maresca didn’t give us much in the way of team news in the pre-Gameweek 16 presser.
Wesley Fofana (hamstring) and Reece James (hamstring) remain weeks away from a return.
Mykhailo Mudryk seems to still be ill too, after missing out last weekend and then not featuring on Thursday.
One further blow to Chelsea is the loss of Pedro Neto to a one-match domestic suspension for yellow card accumulation.
Chelsea’s first-team regulars were rested for the UEFA Conference League clash with Astana in midweek.
As well as praising Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson in his pre-match press conference, Maresca hailed the recent impact of Enzo Fernandez.
“He’s a very good example. Him, Noni’s the same. I said already that even when they were not playing, they were doing the right things. It was my decision to leave them out and the reason why was not because they were training bad or the player was not the right one, it was a simple technical decision. Probably sometimes when you leave out players, you hurt them, you motivate them probably to give something extra. Enzo can be the good example for the rest.” – Enzo Maresca on Enzo Fernandez
MANCHESTER UNITED
Ruben Amorim’s Gameweek 16 presser was held immediately in the aftermath of the win over Viktoria Plzen, so the United boss hadn’t had a proper chance to assess the fitness of his squad after that game.
It doesn’t seem like there are any major concerns, however.
We do know that Luke Shaw will miss Sunday’s game due to injury, having suffered a “small setback” prior to the Arsenal match in Gameweek 14.
Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof have been sidelined of late too but trained ahead of Thursday’s fixture. Lindelof made the travelling squad.
“I don’t think [there are any fresh knocks]. It was five minutes ago, so I have to see it. But no, just some players were tired in the end, you could see it, also because of the transitions, it was a crazy game in the end today. But I think everyone is going to be fit and ready to win the game.
“Yeah, [Evans is] training already.” – Ruben Amorim
Amorim was also asked about the form of goalkeeper Andre Onana after another costly error.
“Yeah, we have to take it like it is. He had already, in the past, a situation like that. So we have to work on this. If you see the play, we are trying to build up a lot with the goalkeeper making the balls with Matta [Matthijs de Ligt] a lot of times.
“This time, we have a disconnect a little bit during the play and, when we try this, we suffered a goal, a difficult goal for us in the start of the second half. But we managed today, not like against Nottingham [Forest]. We managed to help Onana, like he did in the past for us.” – Ruben Amorim on Andre Onana
BOURNEMOUTH
Luis Sinisterra (hamstring), Alex Scott (knee) and Julian Araujo (hamstring) remain on the Cherries’ injury list.
Marcos Senesi (quad) joined them last week and has since undergone surgery, while Marcus Tavernier will be out for some time after suffering a hamstring injury in Gameweek 15.
“We’ve lost Marcos for a long time and we’re going to be without Tav for some time.
“Marcos is an injury, it’s a surgery. When you have a muscle injury and they take the decision to go to the surgeon, it’s because it’s a big one. It happened to us in Julian’s case and it’s pretty similar. In Marcos’ situation, it’s a different part of the body – it’s his hamstring, not his quad. I don’t know, three or four months is normally what it takes when it’s surgery. It’s difficult to be less than this.
“Tav is different, as it’s a muscle injury – a normal one. He will be out for some weeks, I don’t know how long, but it’s not a big one like in Marcos’ case.
“I hope no [more injuries]!” – Andoni Iroala
Tyler Adams is back after being rested in the final match of the three-game week.
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Fabian Hurzeler gave us some very specific injury updates, or at least percentages of playing, in his press conference.
Joel Veltman (unknown injury) has the best chance of recovery, although is still only rated at “50/50”.
James Milner (hamstring), Ferdi Kadioglu (toe) and Jack Hinshelwood (knee) were also evaluated.
“So, Joel is 50/50. We have to we have to wait the next two days.
“[Hinshelwood] 40/60. [Kadioglu] 20/80. [Milner] 10/90.” – Fabian Hurzeler
Solly March (knee/match fitness) has had his first full week of training and is “pushing to be an option for the squad”.
“Closer, closer. He can be a possible option but also, I said it the last time, we need to be really patient with him. Now, he had a full training week – or the first full training week – with the team and he’s doing well, he’s progressing really good, he’s pushing to be an option for the squad.
“Now it’s about talking with the medicals, talking with the physios, what is the right thing and when it’s the moment to really integrate him in a match day because in the end he needs to be prepared for the Premier League. After being injured for such a long time, we really have to be careful.” – Fabian Hurzeler on Solly March
There was no update on Adam Webster (hamstring), who has missed the last two months.
BRENTFORD
Mathias Jensen (hamstring) requires another couple of weeks before returning, while Gustavo Nunes‘ (back) recovery from a stress fracture hasn’t gone as well as hoped and he remains out, too.
“Jensen, unfortunately, is a couple more weeks away until he is ready, so that is a bit of a blow – he’s an important player for us. Luckily, other players have been stepping up, like [Yehor] Yarmoliuk against Newcastle.
“Nunes: the update there is that it will unfortunately be a while. He played the behind-closed-doors game against Cardiff City, and he had that stress fracture in his lower back, which hasn’t healed as well as we wanted it to.
“He could probably progress but we want to be completely on top of it; he’s very young so there’s no reason to force it, he’s got plenty of time and we can be patient.” – Thomas Frank
Longer-term absentees Josh Dasilva (knee), Rico Henry (knee) and Aaron Hickey (hamstring) are still unavailable for the Bees.
Thomas Frank said that Vitaly Janelt – who missed out in Gameweek 15 with an injury that was described as “nothing big” – should be back this weekend.
Kristoffer Ajer, who returned as a substitute last weekend, is also ready to start.
“Everyone from [the last] game should be available. Vitaly Janelt should be involved in the squad tomorrow, or available, so that’s positive.
“Kristoffer [Ajer] was in the squad last time, so he’s still good.” – Thomas Frank
WEST HAM UNITED
Michail Antonio faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines after suffering a lower-leg fracture in a car crash last weekend.
“We are going to visit him today or tomorrow. The main thing is we are very happy because he is recovering very well. We are very close to him and his family, and we wish him the best for the next days.
“The best news about Michail Antonio was that he was able to talk to us [before the Wolves game]. Look at the car, the [escape from the] crash was miraculous. We are happy for him.” – Julen Lopetegui
Emerson Palmieri serves a one-match ban after collecting five bookings, meanwhile.
Outside of that, Julen Lopetegui – not for the first time this season – hinted at a couple of issues without naming names.
“We have two little issues that we’ve had in the last days. So, we are going to check in the next days and to make our last decisions in the next days.” – Julen Lopetegui on the latest team news
Lopetegui also discussed Niclas Fullkrug, who has recently returned to the squad after well over two months out.
“I think Fuller is improving step by step. He has been a long time out for the injury that he had, and now he’s recovered himself. Day by day, putting his body better. It’s good news for us that he’s back and he’s going to be ready to help us. Let’s see when he’s going to be ready or not to do more.” – Julen Lopetegui on Niclas Fullkrug
CRYSTAL PALACE
Adam Wharton (groin) looks set to miss out again, while Matheus Franca (groin) remains sidelined.
Joel Ward is also a doubt with a calf injury.
“[Wharton] had a little bit of a reaction after the Wednesday and Thursday training sessions. [They were] very intense sessions and he had a bit of a reaction, so we had to reduce his workload, so he won’t be available.
“It’s looking like nothing serious. Let’s see if he’s available for the Arsenal game in the week [Wednesday], or maybe at the weekend [Saturday 21st].
“França is still in rehab. He’s training individually and his progress gets better and better.
“It looks like he will join us in team training, if everything goes in the right direction, early in the New Year. For the December games, he’s not available.
“We have a bit of a question mark with Joel Ward – he has some issues with his calf – but let’s see how it goes, it looks like maybe he’s not available.
“All other players are fit.” – Oliver Glasner
Chadi Riad (knee) got through 45 minutes for the under-21s in midweek.
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Joao Gomes is banned after reaching five Premier League cautions in 2024/25.
Pablo Sarabia (calf) and Jose Sa (shoulder), absent on Monday night, won’t recover either.
Yerson Mosquera (knee), Boubacar Traore (knee), Sasa Kalajdzic (knee) and Enso Gonzalez (knee) remain out. Traore could be back at the end of the month.
O’Neil revealed that Mario Lemina has been stripped of the captaincy after his post-match meltdown in Gameweek 15. Nelson Semedo now wears the armband.
