Juan Mata’s Fantasy owners will be a touch more hopeful ahead of Sunday’s home clash with Liverpool after the Spaniard issued an injury update on his personal blogsite earlier this morning. Mata revealed his omission from the Chelsea squad for the 1-1 draw at Swansea was mainly down to rest:
“Bad news for me: after such a huge effort during 120 minutes I was forced to rest a few days with a hamstring injury…That’s why I missed our game in Wales vs Swansea.”
This optimism was also backed up by Roberto Di Matteo today, after the Blues boss admitted he was hopeful of an instant return to action for both Mata and David Luiz for Wednesday’s Champions League game with Shakhtar Donetsk:
“It is going to be a question of waiting for the next couple of days for them to recover and we hope they will be available to play.”
With Chelsea three points behind the Ukranian outfit with three games remaining in Group E, Di Matteo will likely be reliant on Mata recovering, with a trip to Juventus also on the horizon as they look to retain their trophy.
Domestically, Chelsea now face three home fixtures in the next four Gameweeks, with Liverpool, City and Fulham all rolling up to the Bridge. The form that has seen Mata return 54 FPL points in his last five league outing was sorely missed at the Liberty, with the draw seeing Chelsea slip off the summit to sit a point behind United. Going on today’s news, though, those who chose to hold onto the Spaniard after Di Matteo raised doubts over his availability last Friday will be a little less anxious, with tomorrow’s press conference hopefully shedding more light on Mata’s hamstring condition.
