Manchester United’s visit to Stamford Bridge on Monday will come too soon for Christian Pulisic and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, though the duo continue to progress their comebacks from respective injury problems, while Tammy Abraham will be monitored in the coming days.
Frank Lampard provided the fitness update at his Friday afternoon briefing to the assembled journalists at Cobham, where he also revealed that Abraham has continued to suffer from the knock he sustained against Arsenal last month.
‘Christian trained with the Under-23s today,’ revealed Lampard, ‘which will hopefully be for a short period and we’ll factor him back into our training soon but he won’t be fit [for United].
‘Ruben won’t be fit for this game. He’s getting closer, training a lot and he just needs more match fitness to be in consideration but it’s great to have him nearly back.
‘Tammy is still feeling the effects, we’ve had to take him out of training a couple of days this week. He trained today so we’re hopeful but he’ll be assessed over the weekend.’
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Lampard also added to his earlier assessment of the qualities Hakim Ziyech would bring to Chelsea following news that we had reached an agreement with Ajax to sign the Moroccan international in the summer.
‘There’s quality in what he’s got in terms of the ability to make assists and score goals,' explained the boss. 'I’ve spoken a lot this season about games where we’ve had a lot of the ball but haven’t had that final bit and hopefully he’s a player next season that can help us with the quality he has with his crossing, his final pass, shooting and scoring.
‘He’ll have to fit into the way we want to work here, as everybody does. We want to work off the ball and we want energy in our team but the quality he’s got will hopefully be there for the fans to see.
‘I have spoken to him and I know the story of his upbringing and home life. From the outside, when you see someone who’s come through tough times and conducts himself on the pitch, and shows his professionalism and quality on the pitch then that feels good.
‘If there’s a winner there who wants to play every week and is angry when they lose then that feels good too. I can only comment on that when he actually becomes a player here and I work with him but I’m excited to.’