Xabi Alonso has revealed the Chelsea cavalry are back – with the Blues boss describing Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer, Joao Pedro, Reece James and Marco Palestra as ‘ready to go’ after their respective injuries.
Chelsea welcome Bournemouth to Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon looking to fix their form. They went into this three-week international break sitting 10th in the Premier League after losing 3-0 at Brentford in a match missed by several of their sidelined stars, including Caicedo.
Yet Alonso provided positive news for Chelsea fans at his pre-Bournemouth press conference, telling us on Caicedo after his calf issue: ‘He's ready to go. Finally, you have been asking this question and we have used the time with Moises to get him back fit. He's been training good and he's OK to go.’
On Palmer, Joao Pedro and James, Alonso added: ‘They have been able to train. Some of them earlier than others, Marco Palestra as well. So we have used the time and that was the plan.
‘We knew that against Brentford, we were with some players struggling, but now they have trained well and they are ready to go. Cole has trained the last week. He has felt better. We didn't want to rush because we had enough time. The most important thing for Cole is to be fully fit, that he enjoys his game, that he is feeling OK. In the Brentford game, we could see that he was struggling, and for the next part we have a good feeling with him and that he is feeling better.’
As revealed by Daily Mail Sport earlier this week, Caicedo played a part in the first half of a behind-closed-doors friendly against Portsmouth on Saturday. Chelsea lost that game 2-0, and it is understood Palmer, Joao Pedro and James did not participate in that secret fixture. However, Alonso revealing they have returned to training is a big boost pre-Bournemouth.
England manager Thomas Tuchel had told Palmer he ‘misses way too many camps’, describing his withdrawal from duty as ‘another missed opportunity’. Asked about that, Alonso said: ‘He's committed but he needs to be fully fit to play and when he's fully fit, he will enjoy his minutes. We need him in that moment, the club and the national team.’
Caicedo missed the start of this season because of a calf injury before briefly returning as a second-half substitute against Brighton – only to exacerbate his problem as he had to be removed 14 minutes after coming on in that 4-3 Premier League win. He has not been seen since.
Alonso added: ‘Any team will miss a player of his quality, his importance, his dynamic. We have missed him, for sure, and we are happy to have him back. He feels better. We did not want to take risks for Brentford, for example, because we did against Brighton, I took risks myself and I said, “Xabi you did it wrong”, but now he feels much better.’
While Alonso described this international break as ‘too long’, it has benefitted his club, giving their players time to recover from their respective problems.
Bournemouth are managed by Marco Rose, who was the RB Leipzig head coach when they ended the 35-match unbeaten run secured in the Bundesliga by Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen.
Suwbcemotu
0
finally my boys are back. good luck guys.