Get ready for some injury flags to vanish and others to appear as the Gameweek 1 press conferences get underway!
While the bulk of the pre-match pressers will take place on Thursday and Friday, Frank Lampard – whose Coventry City side contests the 2026/27 curtain-raiser at the Emirates – went early and faced the media on Wednesday.
We’ll bring you the key quotes and injury updates from the Sky Blues’ boss in the article below.
For the early team news on the other 19 Premier League clubs, check out this article here.
COVENTRY CITY
Setting us Fantasy managers up for what’s to come this season, Lampard was evasive when he was first asked about the Coventry team news.
“We have a couple of issues. A lot of players are available and a lot of players are fit.
“We’ve had a good pre-season. It’s a challenge of a pre-season in a promotion year because it’s hard to do business early, in those first month or two months, even, especially with the World Cup going on.
“So, we’ve had to be patient and in pre-season terms, that means getting the players fit that came back on the 1st July and integrating players that are coming in at different moments, maybe have been at the World Cup, and we’re getting ready. A lot of teams have these similar problems but we’ve worked towards that and I think the players are fit and in a good place.” – Frank Lampard
Pressed on Haji Wright (quad), Jack Rudoni (shoulder) and Ephron Mason-Clark (hamstring), however, he did finally give us some details.
“[Rudoni and Mason-Clark] are in contention for Arsenal. They’re in contention.
“Haji Wright won’t be available for the Arsenal game and he won’t be available for a little while, unfortunately. He’s got a fairly serious quad injury which is disappointing for Haji and for us.
“It is certainly going to be a number of weeks [for Wright], it could be anything up to 12 weeks.” – Frank Lampard
There was nothing on Frank Onyeka, who hobbled out of last Friday’s friendly win over Monaco. While Lampard did hint at “a couple of issues” in his first quote above, Onyeka was seen running at the training ground this week.
Taiwo Awoniyi has signed from Nottingham Forest in the last few days, and Lampard was asked about the Nigerian striker’s fitness levels after a stop-start few years.
“I’m not concerned about it.
“There’s a reason why Taiwo leaves Nottingham Forest to come to us. We really like him and we hope he’s going to be great for us, but we’re aware of that [injury record].
“I flip that to more the mental side of Taiwo, that’s obviously probably frustrated with game time. So, I like a player that comes in hungry to play and get his minutes.
“Of course, medically, we have to look after him and prepare him, but I like a player that’s coming in wanting to be the man and wanting to play more minutes. So, that’s great.” – Frank Lampard on Taiwo Awoniyi
It’s not just injuries that are a factor at this time of year. With some Fantasy managers keen on Sky Blues’ players for Gameweek 2 (ie those on a Bench Boost), there’s also a degree of trepidation about the 2025/26 Championship winners further bolstering their squad in the transfer market, putting the medium-term game-time of their current players in question.
The recent capture of forwards Sidiki Cherif and Awoniyi, for instance, puts swift pressure on Ellis Simms.
Lampard was asked about the possibility of more arrivals between now and September 1.
“We tried to strike the balance of working smartly and hopefully strategically in the window to bring in players to help the squad that we already had. We’ll see as the window goes on what else comes in terms of ins and outs.” – Frank Lampard
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