Enzo Maresca gives positive update on 2 injured players ahead of semi final | OneFootball

The buildup to last night’s game between Chelsea and Palmeiras saw a few notable changes enforced on Enzo Maresca.

Moises Caicedo, perhaps the most important player in the team, was suspended. To compound that, Maresca’s next favourite central midfielder Romeo Lavia had an injury which ruled him out. Reece James was supposed to step in and take his place, but the captain then picked up an issue in the warmup.

Not long ago, three injuries in the same position would have been very damaging to Chelsea. But this newly strengthened squad had Andrey Santos and Dario Essugo in the group ready to go. The team ended up having no problems in midfield, despite being 3 players down.

Positive injury updates from Enzo Maresca calms nerves

Reece James pre-game against Palmeiras. (Photo by Luke Hales/Getty Images)

Enzo Maresca discussed his new options after the game, and gave us the closest to an injury update we’ve had yet on James and Lavia.

The good news is that both issues sound about as minor as it’s possible for them to be:

“Yeah, as you said, Moi [Caicedo] was suspended. Romeo [Lavia], unfortunately, he had a small muscle problem,” Maresca said post game.

“And Reece, he felt something during the warm-up. We think that it’s tightness, so we prefer not to take any risk for him. And we decided to start with Andrey [Santos].”

Maresca on benefits of entering second year as coach

The Chelsea coach insisted that his time spent with the players now was making it easier to change things around, as the greater group have an understanding and can manage alterations without too much disruption.

“I think now we are one year together. We know each other much, much better compared to one year ago. And with different structure, different way to play, I think the players, they are getting better and better.”