After bringing you updates on the ten pre-Gameweek 3 press conferences that took place on Thursday, we continue our team news summary with this round-up of the remaining pressers that were held today.
Alisson (calf) is set to remain out until after the September international break at least, so Adrian will continue between the posts for Liverpool this weekend.
Jurgen Klopp said of Alisson’s return:
Not that close. Looks good, is in good shape, good mood, but will take time. No date really in my mind. In the beginning, he was on crutches, they are not there any more.
Earlier in the day, goalkeeping coach John Achterberg had said:
They haven’t given us a specific time he’ll be out as it’s difficult to say how quickly it will heal. That’s all with the medics. There’s an international break coming up and we’ll have to wait and see how long it takes after that.
Naby Keita (muscle) will also miss out this weekend.
John Stones (thigh) and long-term absentee Leroy Sane (knee) remain sidelined for Manchester City’s trip to Bournemouth, while Benjamin Mendy (knee) is not yet ready to feature having only just returned to training.
Pep Guardiola confirmed on Friday that Oleksandr Zinchenko is fit, however, saying:
Yeah, he’s fit. In training good, perfectly. It was cramp.
Asked about the prospect of Joao Cancelo playing, Guardiola said:
He can play, he’s ready. Now, one game a week. The people have time to recover. After the international break come the Champions League, Carabao Cup and everybody will be involved.
Eddie Howe didn’t bring us much in the way of fresh injury updates in Friday’s press conference, with the assumption being that Arnaut Danjuma (foot), David Brooks (ankle), Lloyd Kelly (ankle), Dan Gosling (hip), Junior Stanislas (knee) and Simon Francis (knee) remain out.
Lewis Cook (knee) is back in training but not yet ready to return.
N’Golo Kante will be assessed ahead of the trip to Norwich having picked up an ankle sprain but Frank Lampard said on Friday that Pedro is fine after having missed an open training session that Chelsea gave in midweek.
The Blues boss said:
N’Golo Kante has got an injury that he has carried all week so we’re going to assess that over the next 24 hours.
[Pedro] had a couple of aches that were nothing. He has trained the last two days.
Lampard confirmed that Antonio Rudiger (match fitness) is still not ready to feature, meanwhile, but be back in Gameweek 4.
Timm Klose (hip) and Christoph Zimmermann (knee) have returned to training this week but Zimmermann is still a week away from a playing comeback and Daniel Farke said on Friday that Klose is perhaps not ready to start.
Josip Drmic (hamstring) and Onel Hernandez (knee) remain out.
Tanguy Ndombele has sustained a minor thigh injury and joins Ryan Sessegnon (hamstring) and Juan Foyth (ankle) on the sidelines ahead of Spurs’ match against Newcastle but Dele Alli (hamstring) is back in training and Son Heung-min returns from suspension
On the Korean midfielder, Pochettino said:
He was training really, really hard to keep fit and improve in different areas. We are happy in the last few weeks, he was unbelievable in the way he was available to train and compete in every single training session.
I hope it’s going to help the team from now. I think it was a good opportunity for him to build his fitness and have a proper pre-season which sometimes when you’re involved in competition is difficult.
The plan was to provide him with good quality training to try to improve in different areas and when the moment he is available to play to be in the perfect condition.
Pochettino will decide on Alli’s involvement after one final training session but Giovani Lo Celso looks unlikely to start.
The Spurs boss said of Lo Celso:
He was in extended holidays after the Copa America, he didn’t have a proper pre-season and didn’t train too much. He’s training well but is still so far away from what we expect from him and we need to give him time.
Andy Carroll (match fitness), Florian Lejeune (knee), DeAndre Yedlin (groin) and Dwight Gayle (calf) remain sidelined for the Magpies going into Sunday’s trip to Spurs but Joelinton (hip) is available and Steve Bruce is “hopeful” that Allan Saint-Maximin (hamstring) will make the squad.
Christian Atsu (hamstring) has also been back in training.
Diogo Dalot was the only fresh injury concern reported by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer on Friday, with the right-back set to be sidelined until after the international break.
There were some interesting quotes from Solskjaer on the penalty-taking situation at the club, however:
I’m sure you’re going to see Paul Pogba score a penalty for Man Utd again! Definitely. Let’s see when we get the next one. We’re practising penalties still. Marcus [Rashford] and Paul are still on them.
It’s not that I’ve left it to the players to sort out. We’ve nominated two. Throughout the season you’ll have games when Rashford’s not playing [or] Pogba’s not playing. It’s not like there’s anarchy.
Robbie Brady (ribs), Steven Defour (calf) and Danny Drinkwater (match fitness) will miss Burnley’s trip to Wolves, who were in Europa League action on Thursday.
Matt Doherty wasn’t part of the 18-man squad in Turin but travelled with his teammates, with Nuno Espirito Santo saying the Irish wing-back was “OK” ahead of the game.
You can read our round-up of Thursday’s pressers by clicking here.
Predicted line-ups and more detailed information can be found in the Team News tab.
You can view a video round-up or listen to the podcast summary of today’s press conferences below.
5 years, 1 month agoBest replacements (2 ft + a hit, 0.5 in bank):
currently on my thoughts TAA + Bilva + Auba -> Maguire, Sterling, Rash
Pope/Heaton
Montoya-Rico-Lundstram-KWP-TAA
Salah-KDB-Bilva-Perez-Moura
Auba-King-Greenwood
Thx!