Chelsea Team News: Conte Confirms Injury Boost But Defender To Miss Southampton

Chelsea will be looking to cement their position in the top four when they take on Southampton at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Antonio Conte has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s offered a team news and injury update.

The Blues boss was pleased to confirm that Alvaro Morata is in contention to return to the starting eleven after missing the 3-1 victory over Huddersfield Town in midweek.

Morata was ruled out of the trip to the John Smith’s Stadium due to a minor back injury but the Spanish international has trained this week and is now expected to return to the starting eleven tomorrow afternoon.

But Chelsea are going to have to once again make-do without the services of David Luiz and Conte has confirmed the centre-back is still recovering from a knee injury.

Luiz hasn’t featured since the Champions League win over Qarabag last month due to a knee problem but was back doing light running and individual work with the coaches today.

However, Conte says that the Brazilian international still has ‘big inflammation’ on his knee and he doesn’t know when the defender will be available for selection again.

Conte told reporters:

Conte says Morata has trained in the past couple of days and he is in contention to play tomorrow.

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) December 15, 2017

Chelsea head in to the weekend action sitting four points clear of Tottenham in third place but they can move level on points with Manchester United with a win tomorrow ahead of their trip to West Brom on Sunday.