Chelsea team news update: Lampard confirms double blow, trio to miss Villa trip

Chelsea will be looking to cement their position in the top four when they take on Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, boss Frank Lampard held his pre-match press conference via a Zoom call today and gave journalists a team news and injury update including the latest on the fitness of three of his squad.

The Chelsea manager confirmed Fikayo Tomori will miss the game this weekend due to a muscle injury that he sustained during the break. Lampard believes the defender picked up the injury after working hard trying to get himself fit for the restart and he’s now facing around 10 days on the sidelines.

In a double blow for Chelsea, Lampard also revealed that Callum Hudson-Odoi won’t be available for the trip to Villa Park. The attacker has recently recovered from a minor injury that he suffered in training but isn’t fit enough to be in contention to face Villa.

However, Lampard provided a more positive update on Ruben Loftus-Cheek as the midfielder is now considered fit and available for selection after a frustrating injury-plagued campaign.

Chelsea will need to carefully manage Loftus-Cheek over the next few weeks as he’s not played a lot of football this season but it’s a big boost for the Blues to have him available again.

Lampard told Chelseafc.com:

‘Fikayo Tomori has a muscle injury, probably from the stresses of trying to get fit quickly. He has an injury that will probably keep him out for 10 days or so.

‘Callum Hudson-Odoi had a small injury earlier in the training process, and he’s not match fit, albeit he’s physically fit now.’

‘He [Loftus-Cheek] is looking fit. He’s taken part in our training games. He’s worked really hard Ruben to get back. It was a very difficult injury he had and we’ve really missed him this season. He has got himself into a position where he’s fit, but we obviously haven’t had enough matches really for him, so he will have to be managed definitely in terms of the minutes he plays to not overstrain, but he’s looking good for this game.’

Jorginho will miss the trip to Aston Villa on Sunday afternoon due to suspension after collecting his 10th yellow card of the season during the 4-0 win over Everton before the break so Chelsea will be without three first team squad players this weekend.

The West Londoners head to the Midlands sitting three points clear of Manchester United in fourth place so Lampard will be desperate for a win over Villa to tighten their grip on Champions League qualification.