Chelsea Team News: Mourinho Confirms Costa, Schurrle & Ramires Are Injury Doubts

Chelsea return to Premier League action when they make the short trip across London to take on Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon.

Ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference on Friday and gave Chelseafc.com a team news and injury update.

The Portuguese coach confirmed that he has a number of fitness problems ahead of the game with Diego Costa, Ramires, Andre Schurrle, Didier Drogba and John Obi Mikel all considered doubts for the trip to Selhurst Park.

Costa has struggled to overcome a niggling hamstring injury all season and after starting in both of Spain’s Euro 2016 qualifiers over the international break, Chelsea are going to have to assess the striker before deciding whether he’ll take part against Palace.

Ramires has been on the sidelines in recent weeks with a groin injury while Drogba has also been nursing an ankle problem, so the pair will also face late fitness tests to see if they are in contention to feature this weekend.

Andre Schurrle missed Germany’s 1-1 draw with the Republic of Ireland due to a bout of flu so Chelsea staff will have to see how he’s recovered, and Mikel’s fitness will need to be assessed after he returned late from starring in Nigeria’s 3-1 win over Sudan in their African Cup of Nations qualifying game on Wednesday night.

Mourinho told the clubs website:

‘A few, but I want to wait until tomorrow,’ he responded when asked if there were any injury worries. ‘We have some problems, yes. Ramires, Drogba, Diego Costa, Schurrle, Mikel, it’s a long list.’

Chelsea head into the weekend action sitting five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League table so Mourinho will be keen to at least maintain that advantage with another three points this weekend.