Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that both N’Golo Kante and Trevoh Chalobah will be available for selection when Chelsea take on Everton in the Premier League on Thursday.
The duo, who returned to training earlier this week, have both completed the last two sessions at Cobham and are likely to be on the bench at Stamford Bridge.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Tuchel said: “N’Golo Kante will be back on the bench tomorrow, he did the last two training sessions.
“Trevoh Chalobah will also be back in the squad. So it’s Mateo Kovacic and Ben Chilwell out at the moment.”
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The German continued by explaining that Kovacic could return ahead of the weekend, but the club will need to be cautious with their approach as he has been out for the best part of two months as a result of injury and testing positive for coronavirus.
That being said, he’s excited by the prospect of having him and Kante back fit again as the Blues try to navigate their way through the hectic winter schedule.
“Right now, it is Mateo and Chilly out for injuries. Mateo is released on the day after tomorrow maybe. Then we need to see. He has then been out for seven to eight weeks overall with injury and Covid.
“It is then one thing to have NG [Kante] back on the bench, have Mateo back at the end of the week. Whether it is really NG or Mateo? I doubt it. It will take a while but it will be a good day for us when both of them are back.”
With that in mind, let’s take a look at the full squad available to Tuchel for the game against the Toffees.
Goalkeepers: Edouard Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcus Bettinelli
Defenders: Reece James, Thiago Silva, Antonio Rudiger, Marcos Alonso, Trevoh Chalobah, Andreas Christensen, Cesar Azpilicueta, Malang Sarr
Midfielders: Jorginho, Mason Mount, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Saul Niguez, Ross Barkley, N’Golo Kante.
Forwards: Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Kai Havertz