{"id":8995,"date":"2026-05-16T04:51:38","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8995"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:51:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:51:38","slug":"huge-boost-for-chelsea-ahead-of-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=8995","title":{"rendered":"Huge boost for Chelsea ahead of cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"entry-thumbnail\">\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/londonfootballnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1062503362-678x381.webp\" alt=\"\" title=\"1062503362\"\/><br \/>\n<\/figure>\n<p><strong>Chelsea captain Reece James and defender Levi Colwill have both been passed fit for Saturday\u2019s FA Cup final clash against Manchester City at Wembley.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James made a successful return from the bench during the recent meeting with Liverpool, while Colwill\u2014who has spent the majority of the season sidelined with an ACL injury\u2014also came through the trip to Anfield unscathed.<\/p>\n<p>Interim head coach Calum McFarlane confirmed the pair have trained all week and are ready to feature in the showpiece event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve trained well this week and I\u2019m happy with Reece,\u201d McFarlane said at his pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were confident he was able to play those minutes against Liverpool and he\u2019s trained well since. We\u2019re really hopeful we can finish the season in that sort of form.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLevi was exceptional at Anfield. It\u2019s tricky coming back from an ACL, but he\u2019s had a really good rehab and played a few games for the under-21s to get ready. We\u2019re looking forward to potentially having him on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Blues\u2019 injury list is clearing at the right time for the London side, with wingers Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho also back in full training and available for selection.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"POSITIVE James &amp; Colwill fitness updates | Calum McFarlane | Chelsea vs Man City\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/HarqWPsMiD0?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><\/p>\n<p>Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez has also returned to fitness, leaving McFarlane with a selection headache between the Spaniard and Djordje Petrovic, who has deputised in goal recently.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea head into the final looking to salvage a difficult season, and despite a poor recent record against Pep Guardiola\u2019s Manchester City, McFarlane insists his squad remains optimistic.<\/p>\n<p>McFarlane added: \u201cThe players have the belief they can beat anyone. We know we have to be the best version of ourselves. City are an exceptional side, but we have some really good players who have shown they can beat anyone when they are at their best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings above via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons above via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts below via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea captain Reece James and defender Levi Colwill have both been passed fit for Saturday\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8995","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\/8995","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=8995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8995\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}