Four Chelsea players set to miss Newcastle United clash despite Enzo Maresca’s ‘no injury’ claim

Chelsea head to St James’ Park on Wednesday with a spot in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals on the line. The Blues defeated Newcastle United on penalties in the last-eight stage of last season’s competition before going on to be defeated by Liverpool in the final at Wembley.

Enzo Maresca’s side travel to the north east having defeated the Magpies at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, but could be missing up to four players for their cup meeting. Omari Kellyman, who joined the club from Aston Villa in summer, will miss out again with a hamstring injury having not played a single competitive match for his new club.

Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia are also serious doubts for Wednesday’s game, despite Enzo Maresca revealing in his press conference on Tuesday afternoon that he had no fresh injury concerns: “No injuries. Everything is fine,” Maresca said. 

James, Fofana and Lavia all started Sunday’s match, but are expected to not be involved on Wednesday night as Maresca manages their minutes. The trio have all had injury problems recently and, as the Italian revealed earlier this month, he is keen not to overextend them during their recovery periods.

“It is complicated when you get injury, injury, injury again. It is not easy so you are always looking for a solution.” Maresca said.

“Probably the solution with Reece is the same solution we are using with Romeo and Wes in terms of using them just once a week, in one game, because probably in this moment, for different reasons, Reece's body cannot play twice a week. One of the solutions is probably to try and manage him in the same way we are doing with Wes and Romeo.”

Chelsea will have played four games in the space of six days following their Europa Conference win over Panathinaikos on Thursday night and their double-header against Newcastle United. With Manchester United, FC Noah and Arsenal to come before the next international break, it’s likely that Maresca will rotate his squad throughout this period and will be reluctant to put too many minutes into the legs of some of his most at-risk players.