Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic ruled out of Arsenal clash

Chelsea will look to cement third place in the Premier League table when they take on Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night.

Ahead of the game, Thomas Tuchel has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference today and he’s provided a team news and injury update which included the latest on the fitness of Mateo Kovacic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell.

Kovacic was forced off during Chelsea’s FA Cup semi-final win over Crystal Palace at the weekend after picking up an ankle injury at Wembley Stadium. Tuchel has confirmed the Croatian international has suffered a ligament injury that’s expected to keep him out for up to two weeks, so he won’t feature against Arsenal tomorrow night.

In a double blow, Hudson-Odoi is also still working his way back from a calf injury that’s hampered him recently. The versatile winger suffered a setback earlier this month and is still not able to resume full training with the first team yet.

The Chelsea boss also provided an update on Chilwell’s recovery from a serious knee injury that’s kept him out since late last year. The full-back is set to step-up his rehabilitation over the coming weeks and may be able to re-join first team training before the end of the season – although Tuchel doesn’t expect Chilwell to play again this campaign.

Tuchel is quoted by football.london as saying:

“Kova is out for the game. It is a ligament injury. Hopefully not longer than two weeks. Two weeks can be a long time for us in terms of games. This is the kind of timeframe. Callum Hudson-Odoi is out for the game, Ben Chilwell is out for the game, and some players are in doubt, which we need to be examining, but hopefully, the rest are okay. ”

“On the pitch in a Premier League match, I don’t think we will rush this in the end of the season. Ben will now be in the transition to join academy training with the youth to have team training but not with the physicality level with us. This will be his next steps. Hopefully, he can join our training at the end of the season. This is the plan for him. For Callum, it is day by day, and still, it is not possible for him to join team training.”

Chelsea are expected to freshen things up following the victory over Palace on Sunday with the likes of Thiago Silva, N’Golo Kante, Romelu Lukaku, Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech pushing for recalls.

The Blues head into the game tomorrow sitting third in the Premier League table – five points clear of fourth-placed Tottenham – so they’ll want to beat Arsenal to tighten their grip on third place.