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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Stephen Killen

Chelsea have 10 injury doubts for Liverpool as Graham Potter shares Mykhailo Mudryk update

Chelsea could hand a debut to £88.5m signing Mykhailo Mudryk against Liverpool but will still be without defensive duo Reece James and Ben Chilwell for their trip despite returning to team training.

The England full-backs have had differing injury problems which have kept them out of the side. James' comeback against Bournemouth was halted as he was forced off with a different issue that ruled him out of the World Cup.

Meanwhile, the former Leicester City defender suffered a hamstring injury in the latter stages of Chelsea's Champions League encounter against Dinamo Zagreb - like James - returned to training this week. However, the Londoners are without a host of players through injury.

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Ruben Loftus-Cheek is edging closer to a first-team return and was named on the bench for their win over Crystal Palace. Potter admitted he can play "more minutes".

"No [players coming back], I think Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] was on the bench in the last match but he's a lot closer now so he can play more minutes.

"The boys are progressing well, Reece [James] has joined team training but won't be involved and the same with Ben Chilwell, everyone else is where we were."

There was concerns coming out of Cobham in the build-up to Saturday's showdown (12:30pm) as Kai Havertz was absent from the training session shown by Sky Sports cameras. But those fears appeared to be alleviated when the German previewed their trip to Merseyside via the official club's social media.

Mudryk trained for the first time this week after arriving in west London from Shakhtar Donetsk. His involvement at Anfield on Saturday remains to be seen but Potter failed to rule out if he'd play any part.

"Good, really good. Young, exciting player, fantastic speed, one-v-one, can attack the backline and now we've got to help him adapt to the Premier League," he said on the 22-year-old new signing, but it was conceded a full debut is unlikely. "Adapt to us, he's come from a mid-season break so hasn't played so much football recently but has been training well.

"We will assess him, see how much he can play at the weekend. There's a chance [of a debut]. It's how much he can do, I think 90 minutes no, but there's probably a role for him at some stage in the game."

Full list of possible Chelsea absentees

  • Reece James - Injury: Knee
  • Ben Chilwell - Injury: Thigh
  • N'Golo Kante - Injury: Thigh
  • Wesley Fofana - Injury: Knee
  • Denis Zakaria - Injury: Quadricep
  • Christian Pulisic - Injury: Knee
  • Raheem Sterling - Injury: Hamstring
  • Edouard Mendy - Injury: Finger
  • Armando Broja - Injury: Knee
  • Joao Felix - suspension

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