Enzo Maresca confirms Liam Delap is available for Chelsea clash with Wolves | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has confirmed that Liam Delap is available to face Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night.

The Blues visit Wolves in the fourth round of the League Cup, with a place in the last eight up for grabs.

Ahead of the crucial encounter, Chelsea have been handed a massive boost with Delap set to end his two-month spell on the sidelines.

The highly rated English striker hasn’t played for Chelsea since he pulled up with a hamstring injury just 14 minutes into the 2-0 win against Fulham at the end of August.

Before last weekend’s dreadful 2-1 defeat against surprise package Sunderland at Stamford Bridge, Maresca hinted that Delap would be available for the game against Wolves.

He has now confirmed that the ‘fantastic‘ striker is in contention, although Maresca plans to ease him back into action to build his fitness and avoid a relapse.

“Liam [Delap] is available for the game,” Maresca told reporters during his pre-match press conference.

“He completed the whole session with us yesterday with no problems, and he is available for tomorrow.

“We have to be careful with Liam and [it’s unlikely he will play] 90 minutes, no. He’s been out for two months, so he needs to be gradually brought back up to 100 per cent.”

Maresca also confirmed that he will shuffle the pack for Wednesday’s outing, which could result in Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez and Joao Pedro being left out or starting the game on the bench.

All three have hardly had a breather this season, so they could be rested ahead of the blockbuster London derby against Tottenham Hotspur.

“Yes, we need to rotate,” Maresca added. “We need to protect the players because if we go with the same XI, we are going to struggle during the season.

“We probably will make some changes against Wolves, I don’t know how many, but we will make changes.

“There are players that need to be protected for many reasons, so tomorrow we’ll see. Enzo, Moi, Joao – they are all players, for different reasons, we need to protect them.”