Chelsea team news update: Latest on 7 players ahead of Liverpool showdown

Chelsea will be hoping to get back to winning ways when they take on Premier League leaders Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Frank Lampard has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this afternoon and the Blues boss has provided a team news and injury update including the latest on Mason Mount and N’Golo Kante.

Mount was forced off during the early stages of Chelsea’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Valencia in the Champions League on Tuesday night after suffering an ankle injury following a late challenge from Francis Coquelin.

However, scans have shown the midfielder hasn’t suffered any serious damage and Lampard has confirmed Mount still hasn’t been ruled out of Sunday’s showdown with Liverpool – although he insists no risks will be taken with the youngster.

N’Golo Kante returned to full training earlier this week after recovering from a troublesome ankle injury that’s hampered him recently. Lampard says it’s a boost to have the midfielder available again but questioned whether the Frenchman is match fit to start against Liverpool this weekend.

Lampard told Chelseafc.com:

On Mount
‘He’s got a chance. We all saw the image of the tackle afterwards which made it look really bad. Hopefully it’s not so bad. We are trying to get him moving today. It’s one I’m going to have to call later on just before the game with another 24 hours in the bank.

‘We’re trying. We will have every opportunity and try to get him there. There’s a lot of swelling and it didn’t look the best. Some injuries with the ankle, from my experience as well, if there’s proper damage there’s not much you can do, but sometimes if they’re swollen, and you strap it up old-school and get out there, it can be done.

‘We won’t take any risks with him individually, obviously, because there’s a bigger picture, but we will all do our best.’

On Kante
‘It’s a boost with N’Golo. We all know the importance of him to the team. The question for me is how fit he is. He has had a long time out now, since the back-end of last season. I know he played a couple of games this year, but I wouldn’t count them as such because he missed pre-season.

‘What he did in Istanbul was miraculous, to play how he did without training. Now we just have to manage him, similar to what I said about Mason. But it’s great to have him back around us.’

So we’ll have to wait and see whether Mount or Kante are passed fit to start against Liverpool but one man who’s expected to return is Emerson after he resumed full training yesterday having missed the last two matches with a thigh injury.

However, Antonio Rudiger remains a major doubt with a groin problem. Lampard didn’t provide any update at his press conference today but the centre-back wasn’t at training on Thursday after missing the Valencia match so it looks unlikely he’ll be available on Sunday.

Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi are edging closer to making their first team returns following serious injuries. They turned out for the Chelsea U23s recently but it’s unlikely they’ll be involved against Liverpool as they still need more time to build their match fitness.

The final injury concern for Chelsea is Ruben Loftus-Cheek and the midfielder remains on the sidelines as he continues to recover from a serious Achilles injury so Lampard could be without as many as seven first team squad players on Sunday.