Our Gameweek 37 team news round-up recaps the headline injury updates and manager quotes from the 20 pre-match press conferences to be held over the last 48 hours.
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Newcastle United v Liverpool
Jurgen Klopp only said “we will see” when asked if Roberto Firmino (groin) would be fit to start at St. James’ Park on Saturday evening.
The Brazilian striker missed the Gameweek 36 victory over Huddersfield but returned as a substitute at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.
Naby Keita picked up an injury in that defeat to Barcelona and will now be missing for the rest of the season.
Klopp said:
Bad news, yes. A high-grade adductor injury, the tendon is ruptured. Which keeps him out for at least, I would say, two months.
Asked if Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain could replace the Guinea international, Klopp replied:
It’s perfect that he’s back. He will be for sure in the squad then we have to make a decision who starts. We will use him, of course, it’s good.
Rafael Benitez said on Friday that Jamaal Lascelles (stomach illness) and Ayoze Perez (hip) are “fine”, with both players having returned to training ahead of Saturday’s match.
DeAndre Yedlin is out with a groin problem.
Manchester City v Leicester City
Kevin De Bruyne (muscle) remains out ahead of Monday’s match against Leicester, while Pep Guardiola said on Friday he “didn’t know” whether Fernandinho (knee) will be fit to feature against the Foxes.
Asked if De Bruyne could return before the end of the season, Guardiola said:
I don’t know. Next Monday he is not available so I don’t know in the future.
On Fernandinho, the City boss added:
I don’t know. I didn’t speak the last days with the doctors because when they start to go the pitch to run, the first training sessions
alone, after you realise he is coming back soon. But they are still in the gym.
Brendan Rodgers reported no injury concerns in his pre-match presser on Thursday.
Chelsea v Watford
There were no real injury updates from Maurizio Sarri after Thursday’s draw with Eintracht Frankfurt but the Chelsea boss said Ruben Loftus-Cheek had been suffering from cramp in that match.
Sarri said:
He is a very important player. He has improved a lot during the season. When he is at the top physically he is a very important player for us. It’s not easy for him to train with consistency because of his back, but in this match, he was really fit. Unfortunately, with ten minutes to go, he had
cramp and asked for a substitution.
Asked why Eden Hazard was only among the substitutes, Sarri replied:
This match was number 59, I think, and Hazard also played eight matches in the national team. For a player, it’s impossible to play 70, 75 matches in a season. Sometimes Hazard, like all the other players, needs to not play for 90 minutes. This is the first reason.
The second is that Eden is usually able to change the match from the bench. For me, it was better to start with Willian and try in the last 30 minutes with Eden.
Javi Gracia revealed on Friday that Sebastian Prodl (knee) and Domingos Quina (shoulder) are sidelined, while Miguel Britos has a problem with his teeth.
Watford look likely to be without Etienne Capoue, too, with Gracia saying:
Etienne Capoue has a problem in his groin. He is not training with the team and I think he won’t be available.
Huddersfield Town v Manchester United
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer offered little in the way of helpful team news in his pre-match press conference, only ruling out Mason Greenwood (unspecified) and Eric Bailly (knee).
Sergio Romero has also “tweaked his knee” in training, so under-fire goalkeeper David de Gea will continue between the posts.
Solskjaer said of de Gea:
He will play. Sergio was injured yesterday so he didn’t train, he tweaked his knee, and David’s been training well this week.
There was, frustratingly, no specific update on Romelu Lukaku (hamstring), Marcus Rashford (shoulder), Phil Jones (unspecified), Chris Smalling (head), Jesse Lingard (swollen knee) or Antonio Valencia (unspecified) but Rashford, Jones and Valencia were pictured in training in midweek and could be in contention.
There are widespread reports suggesting Lukaku’s season is over, however.
Asked about United’s injury doubts (including Lukaku), Solskjaer said:
There’s a few. There’s no point in me giving you all the insights anyway, I reckon you get that from whoever you get it from!
Paul Pogba was conspicuous by his absence in the open training session on Wednesday, though there have been no other suggestions of an injury for the Frenchman.
On Huddersfield’s team news, Jan Siewert said:
[Aaron Mooy’s] back in training, so hopefully [he’s fit]. We’ll have to see how his body is reacting today. Zanka has a cold, had problems with it, it might be that he’s not available. But every other one is available from the squad, I would say.
Bournemouth v Tottenham Hotspur
Harry Kane (ankle), Serge Aurier (hamstring), Harry Winks (groin) and Erik Lamela (hamstring) remain sidelined for the trip to Bournemouth, while Jan Vertonghen (head) is also set to be unavailable.
Concussion tests on the Belgian defender proved negative but a “brief period of rehabilitation” was advised by medical staff and a neurologist on Thursday.
Asked about his team selection for Saturday’s match, Mauricio Pochettino said:
We’re assessing the players today. The most important thing is that we will decide the best team to try to win. On Saturday we’ll put the best players with the best energy to try to win.
Eddie Howe has doubts over David Brooks (ankle), Dan Gosling (calf), Adam Smith (knee) and Dominic Solanke (hamstring), meanwhile.
Arsenal v Brighton and Hove Albion
Aaron Ramsey (hamstring) and Denis Suarez (groin) are out for the season while Ainsley Maitland-Niles serves a one-match ban.
Sunday’s visit of Brighton will be Petr Cech‘s last home game at the club and Unai Emery was asked if the veteran goalkeeper will play a part, replying:
We are going to decide tomorrow. But our first objective is to win.
Asked if Laurent Koscielny was injured after his withdrawal in Thursday night’s win over Valencia, Emery said:
I hope that Koscielny is going to be okay for Sunday and the second leg away, but I don’t know.
Laurent was very tired and he ran back with the transitions in the second half 50 metres for a sprint, and it’s normal that he can be tired or struggling.
I prefer to change him to give this ten minutes to Nacho Monreal after his small injuries, to help us and to save minutes for Laurent Koscielny.
Davy Propper (hamstring) and Jose Izquierdo (knee) will miss out this weekend but Chris Hughton said he otherwise had a fully-fit squad to choose from.
Wolverhampton Wanderers v Fulham
Nuno Espirito Santo has no injury worries heading into Saturday’s match against Fulham.
Reports in midweek suggested Will Norris might be given pitch-time between now and the end of the season and Santo was asked again on Friday if the third-choice goalkeeper might be handed a start against Fulham.
Santo said:
We don’t know, it’s something that I still want to try and make it possible. No decision has been made yet. I think [it] will be fair, but let’s see and wait.
Denis Odoi (concussion) will miss the trip to Molineux on Saturday but Scott Parker said he otherwise had no other injury concerns.
West Ham United v Southampton
Manuel Pellegrini said on Thursday that Andy Carroll (ankle) and Andriy Yarmolenko (Achilles) were his only two unavailable players for the visit of Southampton, so Marko Arnautovic (muscle), Aaron Cresswell (knee), Samir Nasri (calf), Manuel Lanzini (groin) and Carlos Sanchez (match fitness) are expected to return to contention.
Ralph Hasenhuttl cleared up Southampton’s injury situation, saying:
Maya [Yoshida] is still not able to play. Jannik Vestergaard, the season is over because he has a small issue. The rest is normally OK, we have no injured players so far except for these two and Michael Obafemi.
Lemina is an option for the weekend, Armstrong couldn’t play from the beginning last game, he’s an option.
Asked if rotation was a possibility with Southampton now mathematically safe, Hasenhuttl replied:
It’s not necessary to rotate five or six players just because we are safe but for one or two, they will look at this match and the final game as a chance to get in the starting XI.
Goalkeeper Fraser Forster may get a
Cardiff City v Crystal Palace
Crystal Palace look set to be without Christian Benteke (cheekbone) for Saturday’s trip to Cardiff.
Speaking on Thursday, Roy Hodgson said:
We’ve picked up one [injury]. Unfortunately, Christian Benteke took a nasty blow to the head ten or 15 minutes before the end of the game with Michael Keane so he’s suffering from that blow. We’ll see how it goes but he’s very unlikely for Saturday. We haven’t ruled him out for next week. He’s damaged his cheekbone which has needed treatment that has kept him out of training this week.
James Tomkins (groin), Mamadou Sakho (knee) and Jeffrey Schlupp (ankle) remain out.
Neil Warnock confirmed that Kenneth Zohore (thigh) was “alright” but was less positive on Harry Arter (calf), saying:
I don’t think he’ll make it. He’s done some training this week. Unless there’s quite an improvement today. We’ve got two or three little knocks and we’ll see how they are in general.
Everton v Burnley
Andre Gomes (suspended) is Marco Silva’s only confirmed absentee for the Friday evening kick-off.
Phil Bardsley (gashed leg), Peter Crouch (appendix) and Robbie Brady (personal reasons) are all back in contention ahead of Burnley’s trip to Goodison Park, meanwhile.
Our updated Team News tab contains detailed injury news from each club and predicted line-ups for this weekend’s fixtures.
Our video round-up of the Premier League pressers held on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, meanwhile, can be viewed via this link or in the embed below:
4 years, 11 months agoJota or Pogba?