{"id":11239,"date":"2026-05-20T13:21:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:21:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11239"},"modified":"2026-05-20T13:21:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T13:21:06","slug":"mcfarlane-on-james-colwill-and-joao-pedro-fitness-for-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11239","title":{"rendered":"McFarlane on James, Colwill and Joao Pedro fitness for Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Calum McFarlane was without some big players tonight, but still got the win. He gave some updates on the missing Blues\u2019 statuses.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>If you enjoy Chelsea News coverage and want to see more of it, add us as a preferred source on Google to make us a favourite and see more of our content.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Chelsea got a big win tonight against Tottenham, and that was without some of their serious players.<\/p>\n<p>Reece James, Levi Colwill and Joao Pedro would all have been starting were they fit. But having played on Saturday, the turnaround was too short for any of them.<\/p>\n<p>Interim manager Calum McFarlane talked through each of their cases when asked what was going on and whether they would be fit for Saturday\u2019s final game of the season.<\/p>\n<h2>Chelsea players sound ready for Saturday after manager update<\/h2>\n<p><span>\u201cYes, so Levi has obviously come off the back of a very serious injury,\u201d McFarlane explained. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cSo it was probably too quick of a turnaround from the cup final. So that one pretty much speaks for itself. W<\/span><span>e didn\u2019t want to risk him.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cReece (James) is the same. We had Reece on the bench tonight, but again, coming off the back of an injury, the turnaround from the City game, the type of game that the City game was, we didn\u2019t really want to risk him in that moment. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cJoao Pedro had a slight knock, nothing that we\u2019re massively concerned about. But again, with the quick turnaround from City, it just wasn\u2019t worth risking Joao Pedro in that moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p>To us, it sounds like all three will be fit to face Sunderland on Saturday, even if McFarlane doesn\u2019t want to admit it.<\/p>\n<h2>In other news\u2026<\/h2>\n<p>Andrey Santos doubled his team\u2019s lead with a finish from close range.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea went ahead in this game thanks to Enzo Fernandez, who fired one in from miles down town.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CHELSEA NEWS APP FOR ALL THE LATEST UPDATES \u2013 STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON THE APP STORE<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips\u2019 SPTC podcast here:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"SPTC Podcast! Fresh Xabi Alonso to Chelsea news! Summer Transfer Plans! FA Cup Final Preview!\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/yiYy60DQcxI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<section class=\"more-stories std-mgn-b\">&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<header class=\"col-s-12 std-mgn-t\">More Stories about <span class=\"topic\">Andrey Santos<\/span><\/header>\n<div class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-190x123.jpg.webp 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-245x158.jpg.webp 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-320x207.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-414x268.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-630x407.jpg.webp 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"3456\" height=\"2234\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-160479 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Chelsea score their second goal against Tottenham.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-190x123.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-245x158.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-320x207.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-414x268.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Chelsea-score-their-second-goal-against-Tottenham-630x407.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-190x107.jpg.webp 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-245x138.jpg.webp 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-320x180.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-414x233.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-630x354.jpg.webp 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-143852 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Estevao trains his headers.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-190x107.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-245x138.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-320x180.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-414x233.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-56-630x354.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"post-container col-s-4\">\n<p>\t\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-cntr\"><picture><source type=\"image\/webp\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-190x107.jpg.webp 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-245x138.jpg.webp 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-320x180.jpg.webp 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-414x233.jpg.webp 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-630x354.jpg.webp 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45.jpg\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-158904 has-webp lazyload\" alt=\"Andrey Santos prepares for a Chelsea game.\" srcset=\"https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-190x107.jpg 190w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-245x138.jpg 245w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-320x180.jpg 320w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-414x233.jpg 414w,https:\/\/icdn.chelsea.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Working-copy-of-CNFeaturedHero-Image-Templates-45-630x354.jpg 630w\" data-sizes=\"(min-width:1230px) 250px, (min-width:1020px) 20vw, (min-width:920px) 290px, (min-width:680px) 30vw, (min-width:394px) 130px, 33vw\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- Article End -->\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Calum McFarlane was without some big players tonight, but still got the win. He gave&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}