Chelsea are without both Reece James and Romeo Lavia for today’s Premier League clash with Crystal Palace.
Blues captain James has yet to play this term after suffering a fresh hamstring issue during pre-season and manager Enzo Maresca said before Thursday night’s shock 2-1 defeat by Servette in the second leg of their Conference League play-off tie - for which he was initially registered in the squad - that he was not expected back until after the upcoming international break.
It is the same case for Lavia, who has been plagued by injury issues since joining Chelsea in a £58million deal with Southampton last summer and making just one appearance in total during his debut campaign.
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The Belgian midfielder impressed in pre-season and started on the opening day of the Premier League term against Manchester City before coming on as a late substitute in the first-leg win over Servette, but is now sidelined again with his own hamstring problem.
Moises Caicedo has been carrying a knock of late but came on as a substitute in Switzerland on Thursday after starting in the 6-2 thrashing of Wolves last weekend, while new signing Joao Felix will return to the squad having scored on his second Chelsea debut at Molineux before being ineligible again to face Servette.
Jadon Sancho will obviously not have been registered in time to face Palace after joining from Manchester United initially on loan late beyond Friday’s transfer deadline with the help of a deal sheet, with the trip to Bournemouth on September 14 likely to be his first game instead.
Starting Chelsea XI: Sanchez; Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella, Caicedo, Enzo; Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Jackson
Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin, Disasi, Veiga, Dewsbury-Hall, Casadei, Mudryk, Felix, Nkunku
Time and date: 1.30pm BST on Sunday September 1, 2024
Venue: Stamford Bridge
