Chelsea forward Joao Pedro has taken to social media to provide an update on his fitness ahead of the Champions League clash against Benfica on Tuesday evening
Chelsea star Joao Pedro has issued a message on social media a day after Enzo Maresca confirmed the forward was an injury doubt ahead of the Champions League clash against Benfica. The Blues are facing Jose Mourinho’s outfit at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night in their second league phase fixture of the competition.
Maresca’s team go into the clash against Benfica on the back of a 3-1 defeat to Brighton in the Premier League at the weekend. The Londoners lost by the same score line to Bayern Munich in their only other Champions League match of the season so far.
Chelsea are being forced to deal with several injury concerns going into the clash against Benfica, with Cole Palmer, Tosin Adarabioyo, Liam Delap, Dario Essugo and Levi Colwill all ruled out for the game, reports football.london. News also emerged on Monday that three more players could be added to the injury list, including Pedro.
With some crucial players already sidelined, Maresca might be compelled to handle those matches without two regular starters.
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“We have unfortunately many players out for injury,” Maresca told reporters on Monday. “This afternoon we’re going to assess Moises Caicedo, Joao Pedro and Andrey Santos. They are all players unfortunately for us with some small problems.
“So we’ll see if tomorrow they’re going to be available. But we are for sure in this moment we have injuries but we have a squad enough in this moment to try to replace the injuries we have.”
Despite Maresca’s comments, Pedro and Caicedo were seen at the training session later that afternoon on Monday. Caicedo has been a constant presence in every Premier League match this season, while Pedro, who has been dealing with a minor issue for a while, has only failed to complete the full 90 minutes full game twice.
After his latest training session, Pedro took to social media to share an update. On his Instagram story, Pedro posted two photos of himself during the training session at Cobham
It was later confirmed that Pedro is fit enough to be named on the bench by Maresca for Chelsea’s clash against Benfica in the Champions League. Caicedo is included in the starting line-up, while there is no place for Santos in the matchday squad.
It remains to be seen if Pedro will get any minutes for Chelsea in the clash against Benfica on Tuesday night. The London outfit also have to prepare to face Liverpool in the Premier League at the weekend in their next fixture.
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