Chelsea star ‘available’ to face Wolves following injury

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca confirmed that Liam Delap will be ready to play against Wolves after making a recovery from injury.

The clubs face off for a place in the quarter-finals of the League Cup at Molineux on Wednesday evening, with kickoff set for 7.45pm BST.

Delap has been sidelined with a hamstring injury since the 2-0 win over Fulham at Stamford Bridge in August, but looks set to feature against Wolves. The striker returned to training last week following his recovery, but Maresca cautioned he is not yet ready to play a full match.

Chelsea star Liam Delap available to face Wolves following injury

“He took part of a complete session yesterday and he is available for tomorrow,” the Italian told his pre-match press conference on Tuesday.

“90 minutes, no, he’s been out two months so he needs to be gradually back to 100 per cent.”

Maresca also suggested that he intends on rotating his starting lineup for the trip to Wolverhampton amid a mini-injury crisis. Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Benoit Badiashile and Dario Essugo are all on the treatment table, while Malo Gusto and Mykhailo Mudryk are suspended.

“We need to rotate,” he said. “We need to protect the players because if we go with the same 11, we are going to struggle during the season. Probably we will make some changes.

“There are players that they need to be protected for many reasons, so tomorrow we’ll see. Enzo [Fernandez], Moi [Caicedo], Joao [Pedro] – they are all players, for different reasons, we need to protect them.”

Chelsea are looking to bounce back from their shock 2-1 defeat to Sunderland at Stamford Bridge on Saturday. The loss put an end to their four-game winning streak in all competitions.

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