Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has confirmed defender Jorrel Hato will be absent for Saturday\u2019s visit of Aston Villa after picking up an injury. The young Dutchman has made just four Premier League appearances this season and has not played in the competition since the first weekend of October.<\/p>\n
\u201cHato suffered an injury during the warm-up against Newcastle, at half-time,\u201d Maresca told club media . \u201cHe is out [for Villa\u2019s trip to Stamford Bridge].\u201d The manager made clear the setback will keep Hato out of the match at Stamford Bridge, removing a potential option from a defensive group that has seen limited use of the teenager in league play.<\/p>\n
There was more upbeat news from Maresca on several squad members. The manager offered a clear update on winger Jamie Gittens, whose omission from the Newcastle matchday squad had generated intense attention among supporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cJamie was not in the squad [vs. Newcastle] because the day before, in the final training session, he had a problem in his shoulder,\u201d the Blues boss explained. \u201cHe is back now though and is okay for Villa.\u201d<\/p>\n
Maesca also confirmed the returns of winger Est\u00eav\u00e3o and striker Liam Delap, the latter overcoming a shoulder problem in surprisingly quick fashion. Those recoveries provide fresh options as Chelsea prepare for a busy period of fixtures.<\/p>\n
The most encouraging update related to Cole Palmer, who has missed close to two months of the campaign due to a groin injury followed by a broken toe. Having returned earlier this month, Palmer has been managed carefully as he rebuilds match fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s ready for 90 minutes, yeah,\u201d Maresca admitted. \u201cThe progression for a player is 45 minutes, one hour, 70 minutes…<\/p>\n
\u201cHe already played one hour against, I think, Everton. He played more than 70 against Newcastle. I think the progression is there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Palmer has already added to the anticipation around Saturday\u2019s meeting by sharing a clip of a past goal against Villa on social media, under which he commented: “Run it back.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca confirms Jorrel Hato will miss Villa; Palmer progressing, Gittens and others fit. Team news.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5413,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[711,190,172],"tags":[319,1347],"class_list":["post-5414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aston-villa","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-cole-palmer","tag-jamie-gittens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}