Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says he has no choice but to risk Moises Caicedo against Leicester this weekend - even though he will miss derbies against Arsenal and Tottenham if he is booked.
Caicedo has been among the Blues’ most reliable performers this season and has started all 27 of their Premier League games.
However, the 23-year-old has picked up nine yellow cards in that time and will have to serve a two-game ban should he collect a 10th in any of the next five games.
Chelsea are strong favourites to beat struggling Leicester at home this weekend, with the Foxes having lost 11 of their last 12 league matches. But with his side desperate for points in the race for the top four, Maresca insists he cannot afford to take anything for granted, even knowing there are crunch matches against Arsenal and Spurs to come either side of the international break.
"At this moment for us, it’s about winning games,” Maresca said. "We need to win games, so we cannot plan on giving Moi [Caicedo] a rest thinking that he can play Arsenal.
“We need to win against Leicester and then we need to focus on how we can beat Arsenal. It's just game by game and we need our best players on the pitch.”
Caicedo’s disciplinary record during the first half of the season was relatively clean, with only four yellow cards across the opening 19 matches, one shy of the mark that would have forced a one-game suspension.
However, the Ecuadorian has picked up bookings in five of the Blues’ last six league matches to now stand on the brink of a more severe punishment.
“The position of Moises, if you see his background, last year he had 11 or 12 yellow cards, the year before the same,” Maresca said. “It’s because he is a midfielder. You are in the traffic. Sometimes you have to make some fouls. It's normal.
"Hopefully, he can avoid that until the end, knowing that probably it's difficult.
“The good thing is that we have also Romeo [Lavia] now, he's started training with us already. He can be back. We need to be ready. Reece [James] can be a midfielder like [against Copenhagen] so we'll see.”
