Lampard confirms triple injury boost as Chelsea boss offers updates on 6 players

Premier League football returns this weekend as Chelsea take on Wolves at Molineux on Saturday afternoon. 

Ahead of the game, Frank Lampard has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and he’s provided an update on the fitness of six of Chelsea’s first team squad.

The Blues boss was pleased to confirm that Antonio Rudiger is now back in contention after returning to full fitness following injury and Lampard says the German centre-back is going to be an important addition to his team.

Mateo Kovacic is available to face Wolves after recovering from a calf injury and in a triple boost, Pedro is also set to return to the squad after overcoming a hamstring problem he picked up in the warm-up before Chelsea’s win at Norwich City.

However, it wasn’t all good news for the west Londoners as Lampard revealed that N’Golo Kante will continue to miss out this weekend as the midfielder is still recovering from an ankle injury that’s hampered him recently.

Lampard is hopeful Kante will be able to return to the training pitches to do some physical work soon but the trip to Molineux on Saturday afternoon will come too soon for the French international.

Elsewhere, the Chelsea coach confirmed that Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James will turn out for the U23s this evening as they young duo step-up their recoveries from serious injuries.

Hudson-Odoi has been training in recent weeks after overcoming an Achilles injury while James has also been back in training following a knee problem and the duo will build-up their matches fitness with the development squad tonight.

Lampard told Chelseafc.com a

‘Rudiger is fit to play. He’s been very important for the club and the team since he’s been here with his personality, character and quality and we’ve missed him.

‘Kovacic is fit to play but N’Golo is not fit yet. He still has issues with his ankle and the medical team are working with him. He’s in a bit of a transitional period now where we’re trying to get him on the pitch and he’s doing some physical work but this game comes too soon for him.’

‘Callum is going to play for the Under-23s this evening, along with Reece James, so they’ll get minutes which is important now,’

‘Callum has been training with us for a while but there are still some issues with the actual injury itself that we need to make sure are okay. He’ll need to get match fit so these games are really beneficial for him.

‘Reece has not had such a long time out but he needs games for similar reasons.’

So it’s mixed news for Chelsea as they head to Wolves looking to get back to winning ways following their disappointing 2-2 draw with Sheffield United before the international break.