Chelsea could be without several key players for the trip to Watford on Wednesday as the injuries begin to mount up ahead of the hectic festive schedule.
The Blues were already without Ben Chilwell and Mateo Kovacic, who are longer-term absentees with ACL damage and a hamstring problem respectively, while N'Golo Kante missed Sunday's draw with Manchester United after twisting his knee against Juventus in the Champions League.
Speaking ahead of the midweek Premier League clash with Watford at Vicarage Road, Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel revealed he has three fresh injury concerns - although none are too serious at this stage.
"For the game tomorrow at Watford, for sure we will be without Chilly, Kova and N’Golo who are all out and then we have some doubts over some other players that we need a bit more time on, to do some examinations on before deciding whether they can be involved," he told a pre-match press conference.
"Reece James, Jorginho and Timo Werner we will have to wait and then decide on. They all finished training with us today but there will be some last-minute decisions on those players for sure."
Romelu Lukaku made his long-awaited return from an ankle injury late on against his former side United. Asked about what his involvement might be on Wednesday, Tuchel continued: "Romelu is pretty easy. He came on in the last match and he has continued to train with the group.
"He is ready to progress in minutes and this is where he is at right now."
Tuchel - who is certainly no stranger to tinkering with his lineups - added that he will not hesitate to rotate his team as we enter the busiest period of the season.
"It will be challenging but it has been challenging before," he said. "We won't change our routine.
"We have a tight communication with the medical and fitness department and we tried to predict the load, look at who is overloaded and underloaded, and from there we see what we will need in the next game.
"As you know, we take it step by step. If you look too far ahead you will see there are tough weeks coming. That is why we focus on the details, the next game, maybe on the next two games where we can rely on our predictions because we have fantastic support from everybody.
"It's on the players to be strong in the games but to take recovery very seriously. We have to be very good in recovery and sleeping, taking the right food and supplements to help us recover.
"Our style is intense and needs to be to have a certain mentality and identity on the pitch. This is what we want. We are not scared to rotate and we will use the whole squad."
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Source : 90min