The boss provided the latest injury news at Cobham on Friday afternoon before the team’s trip north to Burnley. Lampard said he will be without four of his players who have featured this season, as well as long-term absentee Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who continues to recover from his Achilles injury.

N’Golo Kante remains out injured

‘N’Golo won’t be ready,’ Lampard reported.

‘He’s training on his own with some physical work because he’s had a few issues. We need to get him right now because he’s been in and out through the season as we all know.

‘There’s no real timeframe on it. I just want him fit. He’s played a lot of football for four years, he’s had a big injury off the back of last season, and maybe he’s suffering from that big injury and the fallout from that.

‘It’s maybe now time to take a small step back to get his fitness up and be confident we won’t have a domino effect of small injuries.’

Lampard had the latest on Toni Rudiger

‘Rudiger won’t be ready for the weekend, but he’s getting closer. He’s outside training with us.

‘He had a bad injury. He didn’t play since April, played half a game against Wolves, so this is again a fallout from last season’s injury for us. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of it.

‘Rudi’s close now, so he should hopefully be involved with us in the next week or two.’

Ross Barkley and Andreas Christensen suffered injuries earlier this month

‘Christensen is still out. Ross Barkley is out, not majorly out, just out, so hopefully fit for next week.’

Lampard also previewed the Burnley game and explained why they are such a dangerous team

‘It’s a really tough place to go. I respect them completely. They have a very strong way of playing that they know. They’re well drilled, they’re very efficient in how many times they get the ball in to the box. The two strikers give you big problems, they’re fantastic the way they play together, whether they’re fit or whoever his choices up front are.

‘You have to respect the different strengths of every team, that’s the job. We have had a tight turnaround here, so it’s been huge on recovery and getting the players fit and ready to go again because it will be a physical battle. The most important thing going into the game is how much we look at Burnley, what they can do and what we can do to them.

‘I have watched a lot of their games, and they never give an easy game to the opponent. They’re scoring goals. They’re always a difficult game.’