“We will see…” – Maresca mentions 3 players he’d rather save for Sunday | OneFootball

Tomorrow is the second leg of Chelsea’s Conference League game against Copenhagen, and it’s one of the most significant games of the season.

It doesn’t feel like it, but the Conference League is made up of such small teams that the Danes are potentially the best side the Blues will face until the final. It’s at home, and we have a 2-1 lead, but the quarter finals and semi finals should be against much lesser teams in terms of budget.

So it’s vital we get through with a minimum of fuss – although Enzo Maresca will still not want to put Sunday’s massive game against Arsenal at risk.

In his press conference today there was some interesting information about 3 players who have been struck by illness in recent days. Reece James missed Sunday’s match against Leicester with illness, and Cole Palmer played despite having been hit by the same bug.

According to Maresca, Christopher Nkunku was the latest victim, and all 3 only trained today for the first time since the win over Leicester:

“Cole, Reece and Christo today has been their first session. They had some problems,” the coach said.

“Today they are all better. As I said, yesterday they were not even here all of them and today they trained with us and we will see tomorrow if we use all of them.”

Another interesting decision for Maresca as big games pile up

Malo Gusto gets treatment on the pitch. (Photo by Patrik Lundin/Getty Images)

It sounds very much like the coach would rather not use any of them, especially with Arsenal coming up. But the fact that Malo Gusto wasn’t in training today after hurting his ankle in the first leg means that James may have to feature.

On the other hand, Wesley Fofana and Trevoh Chalobah could share duties at right back, leaving James another few days to get up to full speed for Sunday.