Frank Lampard has given his standard press conference ahead of tomorrow night’s Champions League game with Valencia, and for once he had some positive injury news.
It’s been a good few weeks, with N’Golo Kante finally establishing himself as a regular again, and now it seems like another key man from last season is almost ready for a return.
Simon Johnson of the Athletic was in the press conference to record the manager’s quotes:
Lampard says he hopes Hudson-Odoi will be fit for the weekend. Rudiger a case of getting match fitness back but encouragingly says 'it's days rather than weeks' before he's available for Chelsea.
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) November 26, 2019
*correction. Regarding Rudiger, Lampard said 'it will be days and weeks rather than months' before he returns. So as I thought earlier today, he won't be back for a while yet. Has to work on his match fitness.
— Simon Johnson (@SJohnsonSport) November 26, 2019
So Rudiger will be “days and weeks” rather than “months,” and given we saw him in training today, it seems a matter of just regaining fitness more than anything else.
We won’t see him rushed into action, that’s for sure, given what happened last time.
Hudson-Odoi sounds like he’s close, although tomorrow night comes too soon, and he still has a battle to actually get picked in the first team at the moment.
We will see who the manager picks this time tomorrow.
