Xabi Alonso Confirms Chelsea Team News vs Fulham As Positive Fitness Update On Summer Signing Offered | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has provided a fitness update on striker Danny Welbeck ahead of the season opener against Fulham.

The Blues will make the short trip to Fulham’s Craven Cottage for the Premier League season-opening match on Monday, August 24.

Alonso will hope to start his debut season at Chelsea with a win and is expected to field his strongest available line-up in the derby.

The Chelsea manager still has to keep in mind the upcoming Carabao Cup second-round tie against Luton Town at Stamford Bridge on August 27, but he will have plenty of players for team rotation.

There were questions regarding the availability of a couple of players for this match.

Two veteran signings, Welbeck and Jordan Henderson, were left out of Chelsea’s final pre-season win over Spanish side Real Sociedad last week.

Alonso did confirm that Welbeck is expected to be available for the trip to Fulham.

“He can be involved,” the Chelsea boss said about Welbeck in his press conference on Thursday.

"He just needed a couple of days not training as much because of a little thing but we're expecting him to be back on Saturday (for team training). We need to go day by day but that's the plan at the moment."

There was no official explanation for Henderson’s previous absence, but the England international was spotted in training with other senior players on Thursday.

Still, Henderson arrived late to pre-season after an extended break following the World Cup and recently recovered from a forearm fracture, so he may need more time to be at 100 per cent.

“Let's see, we will check, we will assess,” Alonso added when speaking about the fitness level of the late arrivals.

Emmanuel Emegha and Aaron Anselmino also missed the squad against Real Sociedad.

The former sustained a hamstring injury early in pre-season, forcing him to miss out on the team’s tour in Australia and Asia.

Anselmino, on the other hand, picked up a hamstring injury during Chelsea’s 3-3 draw with Johor Darul Ta’zim in Malaysia earlier this month.

Emegha has already been seen in training in the last couple of weeks, but it remains unclear whether the two will be fit enough to feature against Fulham.

That said, Alonso will have plenty of other options even if he has to leave them out of the squad.

Joao Pedro is obviously the first-choice number nine, while the likes of Levi Colwill, Maxence Lacroix, Wesley Fofana, and Josh Acheampong are likely ahead of Anselmino in the centre-back pecking order.

Fofana will unfortunately serve a one-match suspension on Monday, which is carried over from his red card against Sunderland on the final day of last season.