Chelsea Team News & Injury Update: Jose Gives Latest On Hazard & Torres

Chelsea welcome West Brom to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon looking to close the gap on the league leaders.

The Blues head into the weekend action sitting five points off the pace in the Premier League following last weeks 2-0 defeat to Newcastle so the west Londoners will be hoping to go into the international break on a positive note.

Ahead of the visit of Fulham, boss Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media and gave Chelseafc.com a team news and injury update including the latest on Fernando Torres and Eden Hazard.

The Portuguese coach confirmed that Torres will once again miss out with the thigh injury that kept him out of Wednesday’s 3-0 win over Schalke. However, the striker is expected to return to action in two weeks and should be in contention for the trip to Upton Park after the international break.

Chelsea have no fresh injury concerns meaning the only other player on the sidelines is Marco van Ginkel with the midfielder set expected to miss the rest of the season with a knee injury.

‘Fernando is recovering well. We think normally, if things go the right way, he should be in the condition to be back after the international break.’ Mourinho told Chelseafc.com

Mourinho was also quizzed on attacker Hazard – who was omitted from the squad to face Schalke after missing training following a trip to France earlier in the week – and the Blues boss confirmed the case is now closed and the Belgian is back in the squad to face the Baggies.

‘He [Hazard] reacted well, he apologised to me and to the club. It’s over now. He has the appetite to play because he loves to play football and I didn’t allow him to play the last game. I am happy he is back.

‘Every player knows me, and they know that for me the group is more important than the player, and the group principles are more important than even a football result. He is a good kid, he knows he made a mistake and now the case is over.’

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