Thomas Tuchel is set to welcome back Cesar Azpilicueta and Mason Mount to the Chelsea side on Tuesday for their Champions League tie against LOSC Lille.
Chelsea host the Ligue 1 champions at Stamford Bridge in the first leg of the two-legged last-16 tie, with the reverse leg set to be played on March 16 at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy in France next month.
Away goals have been scrapped, a decision Tuchel back, and so Chelsea won’t have to worry about Lille getting an advantage heading into the second leg should they net in west London.
Tuchel is set to have a near fully fit back line at his disposal on Tuesday night following the return of captain Cesar Azpilicueta from a groin injury.
The 32-year-old missed the win over Crystal Palace at the weekend but was involved in team training on Monday and is expected to be involved if he continues to have ‘no reaction’ from the injury.
“Azpi trained and had no reaction. If it stays like this he is available tomorrow (Tuesday),” revealed Tuchel on Monday afternoon in his pre-match press conference.
Mason Mount was another who re-joined team training after coming off after 31 minutes in the Club World Cup final with an ankle injury.
The 23-year-old may be included in the squad on Tuesday however Tuchel offered no indication one way or another ahead of the last-16 clash.
“Mason did a very good individual training, he will try to come back to training today (he did) but he was out a little bit too long maybe to start. Perhaps he is involved in the squad,” continued the Blues head coach prior to the Cobham afternoon training session.
However, Callum Hudson-Odoi (Achilles) and Reece James (hamstring) both were absent from Monday’s session and won’t play any part on Tuesday night. The latter’s unavailability has been confirmed by Tuchel, along with Ben Chilwell (hamstring) already.
Hudson-Odoi’s absent makes him a major doubt with Tuchel unlikely to take any risk ahead of Sunday’s Carabao Cup final against Liverpool at Wembley. Harvey Vale trained with the first-team which could see him make the matchday squad.
Predicted Chelsea XI: Mendy, Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Rudiger, Alonso, Kovacic, Kante, Jorginho, Havertz, Lukaku, Ziyech.
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