Chelsea duo doubts for Wolves clash as Rosenior confirms injury blow | OneFootball

Liam Rosenior says he is not yet sure whether Reece James and Pedro Neto will be fit to play against Wolves on Saturday.

Both missed the Carabao Cup semi-final second-leg defeat to Arsenal and Rosenior says they will be assessed before the weekend’s clash.

“Don’t know yet,” he said. “Had training today, which was a recovery day for the lads who played in a really tough physical game on Tuesday. We’ll check them tomorrow and then we’ll make a decision then.”

Meanwhile, winger Jamie Gittens is set to be out for the long term after suffering a torn hamstring.

“Jamie is more long-term,” Rosenior said. “He’s got a tear in his hamstring which is a real shame for him.

“Obviously I’ve not worked with him for too long. Obviously, I’m known about his career and what an outstanding player he is. Yeah, so that’s going to be a big miss for us.”

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But Rosenior insists Cole Palmer is ready to play 90 minutes having come off the bench against Arsenal on Tuesday.

The forward is having his fitness carefully managed after missing much of the season with a groin injury.

“What we’re doing with not just Cole, all of the players, we have the very best medical team, we have the very best sports science team. We do many tests. We want to make sure that these players can play at a level that they need to play at to help us win.

“So in terms of Cole, there isn’t a time frame where he’s going to be perfect in a month or two months or three months. It’s just game to game. And that’s the way that we’ve been working with him. And I think that is the way we will have to continue working with him and a few of our players.

“He wants to be playing every minute of every game. We know the player that he is, the character that he is, but he’s also maturing as a human being and he understands the bigger picture, which is his career.

“Bearing in mind, I’m very conscious of this, the lads played in a Club World Cup and then they went through the summer with no break. Then they’ve got to play so many games. Our schedule has been crazy. 

“Then they have World Cups to go to and international games to play. I want to make sure that the wellbeing is correct for these players for their careers as well.”