Chelsea\u2019s injury concerns mount ahead of FA Cup final<\/h2>\n
Chelsea go into the FA Cup final against Manchester City on 18 May with a massive injury list, and the Blues are sweating over the fitness of several key players. Robert Sanchez, who suffered a head clash with Morgan Gibbs-White, missed the Liverpool trip but has cleared the FA\u2019s return-to-play protocol and is now waiting for the green light for Wembley.<\/p>\n
Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho both picked up knocks in training; nothing was deemed serious, but both sat out games against Nottingham Forest and Liverpool. Interim head coach Calum McFarlane told reporters he is \u201cvery hopeful\u201d the two wingers make the final, though he warned the situation is still day-to-day.<\/p>\n
In more concerning news, Jesse Derry, the teenager who suffered a sickening head collision with Zach Abbott on his Premier League debut against Forest, needed nine minutes of on-pitch treatment before being stretchered off. McFarlane confirmed early signs of Derry\u2019s recovery are \u201creally positive,\u201d though there is no set return date yet.<\/p>\n
Estevao, who had only just returned from a previous spell out, pulled his hamstring against Manchester United just 15 minutes in and is done for the season, sparking fears for the Brazilian ahead of the World Cup. Jamie Gittens, sidelined since January with a hamstring injury, suffered a setback that pushed his return beyond the end of the season, according to reports.<\/p>\n
Report reveals Barcola\u2019s transfer decision with Liverpool and Arsenal interested<\/p>\n
Can Chelsea actually win the FA Cup with half their attack missing?<\/h3>\n
In all honesty, they can, but it will take a level of tactical discipline from McFarlane that we haven\u2019t always seen. Chelsea still have the quality in Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro to cause City problems, but losing Neto and Garnacho strips away the width that would have given advantage to the Blues.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have been told to complete the signing of \u00a320m Man City star to fix major issues<\/p>\n
Sanchez being available is a massive deal because Filip J\u00f8rgensen, while capable, hasn\u2019t been tested on a stage like this. Chelsea\u2019s biggest strength is Palmer\u2019s knack for making something out of nothing; the worry is the brittleness that comes with so many players missing. If Neto and Garnacho do make it back, Chelsea are real contenders. If not, they\u2019ll have to rely on a bit of individual magic to pull it off.<\/p>\n
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Chelsea\u2019s injury concerns mount ahead of FA Cup final Chelsea go into the FA Cup…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7527","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\/7527","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=7527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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