Chelsea injury news: Maresca confirms injury blow ahead of Everton clash | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has confirmed that defender Malo Gusto will miss the game with Everton on Saturday.

The Chelsea defender was forced off in the 2-1 victory against Fulham last weekend but Maresca, ruling him out for the match against Everton, does not expect him to be out for long.

“He’s injured but it doesn’t look important,” he said. “He’s already running, he won’t be available tomorrow but hopefully for the next one.”

This will come as good news for Chelsea, as initially, Maresca feared that the defender’s injury “didn’t look good”.

Youngsters Marc Guiu and Aaron Anselmino both remain out with long-term injuries, but are the only two other worries for the Italian head coach.

Guiu is also closing in on a return, Maresca says.

“Marc Guiu is still out,” he said. “Aaron Anselmino is still out, but the rest are still fit. The rest are all fit. [Marc] is close; hopefully one or two weeks, and he can be with us for the final part of the season.”

One positive for the Blues has been the recent return of Romeo Lavia for selection, who was an unused substitute against Fulham.

Maresca said: “He was on the bench against Fulham and some more games. He’s back, he’s training with us. We’re going to try the same as we are with Reece James. We know we need to use them step-by-step, with James it’s working quite well.”

Gusto’s exclusion from the matchday squad against Everton does mean that there is space for the inclusion of Christopher Nkunku, who had missed out on the squad for the west London derby against Fulham to make space for Tyrique George.

“He will be in the squad, last week when he was out, we wanted to give some of the young players the chance to continue to be with us,” Maresca explained. “Now he’s back, it was just for that.

“He’s training well, in this moment, if he is in the squad, one of the others have to be out for the Fulham game, probably Tyrique George. Now Malo Gusto is out, we can bring another one, Christopher is with us.”

Wesley Fofana remains unavailable with a long-term thigh injury whilst Mykhailo Mudryk is out of contention while the results of a failed drug test are examined.