We’ve got injury updates from six Premier League managers who held pre-match press conferences on Thursday.
The head coaches of Brentford, Brighton and Hove Albion, Burnley, Leeds United, Southampton and Wolverhampton Wanderers all faced the media ahead of their league fixtures this weekend.
Ralf Rangnick, meanwhile, will deliver his pre-Brentford briefing immediately after tonight’s clash with Chelsea, although the Gameweek 35 part of that presser will likely be under embargo for a day or so.
So that means we’ll have a total of 13 more top-flight bosses facing reporters on Friday, after which we’ll bring you our second team news round-up of the week.
That summary will likely feature an update on Bukayo Saka, who was spotted back in training with Arsenal today.
In the meantime, check out our ‘early team news’ round-up here for the clubs not listed below.
LEEDS UNITED
Adam Forshaw (knee), Crysencio Summerville (ankle) and Tyler Roberts (hamstring) are all out for the season, while Patrick Bamford (foot) won’t return to action until next week at the very earliest.
“I suspect and can probably expect that he will be on the pitch next week. We have to again be cautious but we’re all optimistic about Patrick at this point.” – Jesse Marsch
BURNLEY
Ben Mee (knee), Johann Berg Gudmundsson (calf), Ashley Westwood (ankle) and Erik Pieters (knee) are all out of the trip to Watford, while interim Burnley coach Mike Jackson will make a “late call” on Maxwel Cornet (knee).
“We’re still waiting a little bit on him at this moment in time. He’s with the physios so it will probably be a late call on him.” – Mike Jackson on Maxwel Cornet
“Erik [Pieters] is going well, hopefully he’ll be in training next week. Ben [Mee], fingers crossed we can get him back before the end of the season – that’s what we’ve been told at this moment in time.” – Mike Jackson
Aaron Lennon (knee) has been playing through the pain barrier but was fit enough to be used as a substitute last weekend, while Jay Rodriguez (calf) had to be withdrawn in the win over Wolves and will also have to be assessed.
“Jay had to have a bit of a rest day when we did a bit of work on Tuesday, so again it’s the big load of games, big guy, a lot of power going through him.
“He’s trained today (Thursday), so he’s had a bit of training, and we’ll see how they all come in in the morning and go from there.” – Mike Jackson
BRIGHTON AND HOVE ALBION
Jakub Moder (knee) and Jeremy Sarmiento (hamstring) will miss the trip to Wolves but Yves Bissouma is available following suspension and Tariq Lamptey (knee) should be back involved providing he suffers no adverse effects from his return to training this week.
“He trained today [Thursday], so providing there is no reaction he will be in the group for the weekend.” – Graham Potter on Tariq Lamptey
Graham Potter also pledged to “pick our strongest team” when asked about the possibility of fielding some fringe/youth players at Molineux.
“For me, it’s ‘pick our strongest team and try and compete for the three points’ is the priority.” – Graham Potter
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS
Ruben Neves (knee), Max Kilman (muscle) and Daniel Podence (foot) are all set to miss Wolves’ clash with Brighton.
Neves has returned to training but isn’t likely to be match-fit enough to face the Seagulls.
“No changes. We still have Max [Kilman], Ruben [Neves] and Daniel [Podence] out. We don’t count these guys for the game, so we try to do what we have in our hands to help them to recover, but I think it would be hard to have these guys in the game. But let’s see.
“[Neves] was training yesterday, today he didn’t train. It would be hard after six weeks to be ready to play 90 minutes as a midfielder and the talent and the quality that he gives to us.” – Bruno Lage
SOUTHAMPTON
Tino Livramento (knee) is set to miss the rest of 2022 with the ACL injury he picked up in last week’s draw with Brighton but Ralph Hasenhuttl said on Thursday that there were no other known injury concerns affecting Southampton.
BRENTFORD
Saman Ghoddos (ankle) has joined Ethan Pinnock (hamstring), Sergi Canos (hamstring), Zanka (muscle) and Frank Onyeka (ankle) on the sidelines but Thomas Frank confirmed on Thursday that Christian Norgaard (shin) and Kristoffer Ajer (head) should be fit for the trip to Manchester United; the former only just missed out against Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday while the latter will have served his concussion protocol in time for Gameweek 35.
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