Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel sounded out an injury update for first-team trio Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen and Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
The west Londoners emerged winners over Southampton in the Round of 16 fixture of the EFL Cup on Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge in what proved to be a sterner challenge than expected for Tuchel and Co.
In his post-match remarks ( via The Metro), Tuchel said that Azpilicueta, Christensen and Loftus-Cheek had been injured in training on Monday and were kept out of the midweek contest against the Saints with the trio expected to return in time for the upcoming game.
‘We hope Azpi is back for the weekend. He had a shoulder injury yesterday in training when he fell on it. It’s very painful but he’s Azpi and he’s a tough guy.’
‘Ruben felt after training some pain in his hip joint. Hopefully we can handle it for Saturday.
‘Andreas needed to recover from tooth surgery and he should be back in training on Thursday if there are no complications.’
The Blues next go up against Newcastle United away from home in the Premier League this coming weekend with Tuchel’s men expected to secure what should be a comfortable win.
Liverpool remain just a point adrift of Chelsea in the league standings and a slip up from the latter could allow the Merseysiders to overtake them at the summit.
