“Yes” – Maresca drops major injury news but it may be weeks before Premier League start for striker | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has just taken his press conference ahead of Chelsea’s EFL Cup tie against Wolves, and the whole thing began with an important team news update.

The Chelsea manager revealed in his pre-Sunderland presser that Liam Delap was perhaps closer to a return than expected, and he’s now given his latest positive update on the striker.

Striker closes in on early return – but still a month to wait

Liam Delap lies injured. (Photo by Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

Asked if Delap would be available for tomorrow night’s game, Maresca replied “yes, he took part in a complete lead session yesterday and is available for tomorrow.”

Summer signing Delap picked up his serious hamstring injury in our game against Fulham on the 30th of August, so it’s been two full months out. Obvious he will play only a few minutes tomorrow and be gradually eased back into action, as Maresca added:

“No, [he’s not ready for] 90 minutes, no. It’s I think two months now that he’s out, so he needs gradually back to 100%.”

Still, if he can come on as a sub tomorrow and at the weekend, he may be ready to start and play 60 minutes against Qarabag next week. He’d then have a full international break to keep getting back into the swing of things before making Premier League starts at the end of next month.

So it’s not yet time to get too excited, but at least seeing him on the pitch will bring some relief.

In other news…

Chelsea’s 3 big problems have been outlined by The Chelsea Feed, who see clearly the issues stopping this team from going to the next leve.

Another hot topic on a podcast this week was more on the striker situation and the dire stats around Joao Pedro’s shot volume. Marc Guiu did better in a game where he took 10 touches than JP did over 5 games…