It’s time for some more Gameweek 31 team news, with the headline injury updates from today’s three pre-match press conferences.
The managers of Bournemouth, Chelsea and Leeds United faced the media on Thursday.
We’ve already had one Gameweek 31 presser, that of Michael Carrick’s, which you can read about here.
More press conferences are to come on Friday.
KEY GAMEWEEK 31 TEAM NEWS FROM THURSDAY
- Chelsea: Chalobah out for six weeks, James to be assessed after break, Jorgensen has surgery
- Bournemouth: Adams + Cook still out, Iraola expecting same squad
- Leeds United: Fully-fit squad, Okafor returns, Gudmundsson ban
CHELSEA
Trevoh Chalobah (ankle) has avoided a season-ending injury after being stretchered off against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday but the centre-back is still expected to be sidelined for around six weeks.
“Obviously, it’s never good that Trevoh is out for any period of time, but fortunately, it’s nowhere near as serious as we first feared. It’s still a serious injury but we’re looking at a period of maybe six weeks, which is disappointing but from where we were a couple of days ago, straight after the game, we are in a better place than what we thought.” – Liam Rosenior on Trevoh Chalobah
Reece James (hamstring) and Filip Jorgensen (groin) remain out, too.
“Filip, unfortunately, he had his scan and needed a minor operation. Nothing too serious again, it’s a matter of weeks.
“Reece, we’re going to look more after the international break. It’s not serious, but there is something in his hamstring and it’s something we’ll monitor after the international break.” – Liam Rosenior
It’s also too soon for long-term absentee Levi Colwill (knee), despite his return to training.
“With an ACL, he is hitting all the benchmarks he needs to, but we need to keep making sure that he keeps going past certain levels. It’s just brilliant to have his presence back on the training pitch. We want to see him back out there on the pitch as soon as possible, but within the right timeframe. He’s still looking at a good while yet.
“Hopefully, [that can be this season]. That is the hope, which would be a massive boost.” – Liam Rosenior on Levi Colwill
We didn’t get any more updates on Malo Gusto and Benoit Badiashile, who missed out against PSG due to illness, or Jamie Gittens (hamstring), who had a setback last week.
Rosenior did, however, say “touch wood”, when asked if that was everyone dealt with in the injury round-up.
Gusto was then spotted in training later.
Meanwhile, the Chelsea boss said he’d had a chat with Enzo Fernandez, whose post-match comments in midweek sparked speculation about his future.
“I think I had a great conversation with Enzo at length this morning before training, not just about his comments, just how he was feeling, how as a team we can improve. He’s one of the captains of the club.
“What I would say is that he made it really, really clear to me how happy he is here at this club, how much he wants to win, how passionate he is for us to be successful. And he also said that in translation and in emotion, things get misconstrued in what he said. So, for me, he’s fully committed to this group, he’s fully committed to winning here at this football club.” – Liam Rosenior on Enzo Fernandez
BOURNEMOUTH
Andoni Iraola is expecting to have a similar squad to the one that faced Burnley last weekend.
Tyler Adams (unspecified), who missed out last weekend, remains out alongside Lewis Cook (hamstring).
Justin Kluivert (knee) and Julio Soler (hamstring) are longer-term absentees.
The Cherries have no fresh concerns.
“I think it’s going to be [the same squad]. I said the same last week and then we lost Tyler Adams in the last day! I hope we don’t lose anyone else, but I think it’s going to be very similar.
“Tyler is not going to be available, as you supposed, because he hasn’t been [named] in the squad for the US.
“Lewis Cook is still not ready. We have almost three weeks now without a game [after Manchester United] so we want to use this space for him to recover properly and be ready for the next one.
“The rest, I think, no fresh injuries.” – Andoni Iraola
LEEDS UNITED
Daniel Farke has a fully-fit squad for the visit of Brentford.
“Everyone is available, no one is out. It is a good situation to be in in March, just in the last game before the international break.” – Daniel Farke
Noah Okafor (hamstring), the one absentee in Gameweek 30, has returned to training and is available.
“Better, back in team training since the beginning of the week.
“Of course, he was out for several weeks, so it is the question, more or less, like, how many minutes he has got in his tank. But, yeah, he is available and this is definitely good news for us.” – Daniel Farke on Noah Okafor
The Whites will be without one of their regulars, however: Gabriel Gudmundsson serves a one-match ban following last Sunday’s dismissal.
“We have also the chance perhaps to change the line-up. We’ve done it several times but of course, JJ [Justin] is a natural replacement. He has more or less started at least the same amount of games on the left side in comparison to the right side during his whole career. So, he is used also to playing on the left side.
“But we have also other options anyhow if you play there with perhaps a winger-type or also Sam Byram.” – Daniel Farke on whether James Justin is the only realistic replacement for Gabriel Gudmundsson
