There will be two young Chelsea players knocking hard on the door of Frank Lampard’s office at Cobham this afternoon after hearing the latest injury news.
Both Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi are out injured with hamstring injuries and they will miss tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Krasnodar at the very least.
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This is very bad news, especially for Hudson-Odoi who would have had a rare chance to start the match tomorrow with Lampard looking to rest a number of his regular starters having already won the group.
However, it could create a chance for one or two of Chelsea’s highly rated youngsters, Faustino Anjorin or Henry Lawrence.
Both players have been training regularly with the Chelsea first team and would have done so again today. Both names are easily amongst the top mentioned players of those who have a massive chance of making it at the club, and they are rated very highly by the coaches at Cobham and the senior coaches.
Anjorin has made a couple of first team appearances already, but Lawrence is also more than ready to have his chance to play in the first team.
Chelsea will look to rest Timo Werner tomorrow night as well, potentially taking away another wing option, leaving only Christian Pulisic who is expected to start.
Werner could be forced to start the match now, or Lampard may chose to hand a start to Anjorin or Lawrence. Neither are out an out wingers as such, but both are versatile and have equally played out wide a number of times in their careers so far at youth level.
I have no doubt that both players would do a fine job if called upon, and I expect to see one or two of them in the squad at the very least tomorrow.
