Fresh double injury blow confirmed as Chelsea boss offers update on 5 players

Chelsea will look to get their Champions League group stage campaign off to a positive start when they take on Valencia at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night.

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

Unfortunately the Blues boss has confirmed that Antonio Rudiger will miss the game tomorrow night after aggravating a groin injury during the 5-2 win at Wolves on Saturday afternoon.

It was Rudiger’s first appearance of the season as he’s only recently returned from a knee injury so Chelsea will be sweating over the results of a scan that the centre-back is due to have later today.

In a double blow, Lampard also confirmed that Emerson will miss the visit of Valencia on Tuesday night due to a hamstring injury that he sustained while playing for Italy last week – although the issue is only believed to be a minor one.

There were hopes that N’Golo Kante may return tomorrow after taking part in full training this morning following an ankle injury, however, Lampard says the midfielder is still not ready to make his first team return just yet.

Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi have also been stepping up their injury returns in recent weeks but the Chelsea boss says the young duo are likely to continue their comebacks with the U23s before they’ll be in contention for the first team.

On Kante, Hudson-Odoi and James, Lampard says they are all fit but not match-ready just yet. He adds Callum and Reece may play in another couple of Under-23s games before returning.#CHEVCF

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) September 16, 2019

Emerson (hamstring) will miss out again… Nothing further on the full-back who suffered a "small injury" playing for Italy last week. #CFC #valenciacf @ChampionsLeague

— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) September 16, 2019

With Ruben Loftus-Cheek still out with a serious Achilles injury, it means Chelsea will be without six first team squad players for their Champions League opener against Valencia on Tuesday night.

Lampard may look to freshen things up as Tammy Abraham was complaining of a tight thigh after scoring a hat-trick against Wolves at the weekend so Olivier Giroud could come in up front to give the youngster a rest.

The likes of Ross Barkley, Pedro, Kurt Zouma and Christian Pulisic are also pushing for recalls after being named on the bench at Molineux so we may see Chelsea make a few changes tomorrow evening.