Sonia Bompastor was pleased to confirm Lexi Potter’s knee injury is not serious, and while the midfielder will likely miss the game against Charlton, our head coach hopes to have her back before too long.
The Blues face yet another London derby this weekend, this time against newly-promoted Charlton at The Valley. We sit at the top of the WSL table after seven games, equal on points with Manchester City on 19, but with a superior goal difference.
We come into the game off the back of the midweek European victory against Roma. The only disappointment on the night was an injury picked up by Potter late on, but Bompastor reported it is not as bad as it could have been.
‘Lexi did an MRI yesterday evening and nothing major from her knee, so it’s good news,’ said the head coach at her media conference at Cobham.
‘She probably won’t be available for this weekend. We just need things to settle down a little bit, but nothing major.
‘We will see how she improves next week, and if she can be available for the Everton game.’
So far this season Bompastor has benefitted from having a largely fit squad to pick from, in contrast to the 2025/26 campaign.
Managing players’ loads is of course a crucial component of her management, and she explained why the quality on display in the Women’s Super League and the Champions League makes finding that balance difficult.
‘You can’t really have the mindset to rotate your team in the league, even when sometimes you’ve played in the Champions League in midweek,’ she explained.
‘The level of both competitions doesn’t always give you that opportunity. In France you could easily play in the league with a really young team against some teams and you will still get a result.
‘Here it’s about making sure the recovery between the games is appropriate and as efficient as possible, because the players need to perform at a really good level every three days. When you play for a club like Chelsea that’s what happens.
She added: ‘The players need to be robust, but as a manager you need to find opportunities to sometimes give them that rest, mental and physical rest, because they are not machines – maybe Lucy Bronze is the only one!
‘But they need some break. Off the back of this summer, the players didn’t have a big tournament, and certainly here at Chelsea availability has been a lot better than in past years.’