Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has confirmed that Antonio Rudiger has returned from a three-month injury layoff and could face Lille in an all-important clash for Chelsea on Tuesday evening. The Germany international defender has endured a wretched run on the injury front of late. He was forced back onto the treatment table after an outing against Wolves in September and has seen just 45 minutes of competitive football since April 28.
A knee injury laid him low in 2018-19, while a groin problem has prevented him from making the desired impact this season.
Rudiger is, however, ready to step back in at a time when Chelsea need his presence the most with the blues struggling at the back in recent games.
Chelsea needs to win to guarantee their place in the last 16 of the competition and Lampard has been handed a boost by Rudiger, who could make his first appearance since September after recovering from a groin injury.
“Yeah, it’s potentially difficult but our guard against that [high expectations] was to give him a lot of work,” Lampard said. “We’ve managed to create some things behind the scenes here in training that look like match play – and some pure running as well, to be fair. He’s come through all of that. You only speak as you look at him and he looks fit and ready to go and I know he’s hungry.
“In terms of the people building him up, probably rightly so. He’s a good defender. Everyone spoke about youth at the start of the season and all these things and transfer bans. I think people overlooked that we started the season with five big players all injured. Carrying on that now Rudi is just back and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek], who’s a big player for us, we do miss those individuals. Let’s see what he can add to us now.”
Since joining from Roma in 2017, Rudiger has been one of Chelsea’s first-choice defenders, but injury woes have hampered the 26-year-old’s progress this season. Lampard will be hoping the German can reintegrate in the starting lineup swiftly to sooth his defensive worries.
