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helsea have been boosted by a number of injured players nearing a return for this lunchtime’s trip to Liverpool as Mykhailo Mudryk puts himself into contention for a debut.
With an absentee list hitting 12 at the peak of the three-month crisis, Graham Potter is now without the lesser total of nine injured players for the visit to Anfield in the Premier League.
Reece James and Ben Chilwell have both re-joined their Blues teammates in training this week, although neither will play any part on Merseyside.
“Reece has joined team training but won’t be involved at the weekend. Same for Ben Chilwell,” Potter told reporters on Friday.
It follows James suffering the recurrence of a knee issue in his comeback match against Bournemouth at the end of December. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was an unused substitute in Chelsea’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday, returning after a two-month absence with an ankle problem.
That leaves Raheem Sterling, Christian Pulisic, N’Golo Kante, Wesley Fofana, Edouard Mendy, Denis Zakaria and Armando Broja still on the sidelines. In addition, Joao Felix is suspended for two more games after earning a red card on his debut against Fulham last week.
Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp also has several key players unavailable, including Luis Diaz, Roberto Firmino, Diogo Jota and Virgil van Dijk, though James Milner returned in midweek. Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez is set to play on Saturday.
Potter previously allowed Felix to start after just one training session and could do the same with Mudryk, who joined last week in an £88.5million move from Shakhtar Donetsk. The 22-year-old hasn’t played for 59 days but was involved in a winter training camp with Shakhtar during the World Cup.
It’s a major decision for Potter, who will likely play many similar faces to those who ended a three-game losing run in the London derby against Palace. It must be tempting to start Mudryk ahead of 19-year-old Carney Chukwuemeka, who lined up last weekend. Noni Madueke, the £29m signing from PSV Eindhoven, has also joined but wasn’t registered in time to face Liverpool.
Predicted Chelsea XI: Kepa, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Badiashile, Hall, Gallagher, Kovacic, Ziyech, Mount, Havertz, Mudryk
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