Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that Florent Malouda is “available to play” against Liverpool on Sunday.
The Chelsea boss stressed in his afternoon press conference that Malouda had made a good recovery from the ankle injury that saw him miss Tuesdayâs win over Spartak. He went on to confirm that Frank Lampard would miss out on Sunday and would not be considered until the Stamford Bridge clash with Sunderland next weekend. Michael Essien remains a doubt for Sunday with his toe injury still a slight concern.
Cech, Ivanovic, Cole, Terry, Alex, Mikel, Zhirkov, Drogba and Anelka were all confirmed in Ancelotti’s starting lineup. He went on to state that Essien or Ramires and Malouda or Kalou would complete the eleven.
The availability of Malouda comes as a major boost for Fantasy Managers and he would now seem likely to start at Anfield. It’s bittersweet news however – the consideration for Malouda owners now is that he could well miss out in one of Chelseaâs forthcoming home games against Fulham and Sunderland in the next week should he start at Anfield.
Earlier today we had confirmation that Nani would sit out of the Old Trafford encounter with Wolves and remain a doubt for City in midweek. Just moments ago we also had confirmation that Rafael Van der Vaart was out of the Bolton trip, while Aaron Lennon is a doubt for Spurs.
As always, all the very latest team news is being collected as it drops from the Manager’s mouths in our Team News section. Keep popping back and monitor the Twitter feed for the fresh new arrivals.
