In his press conference this afternoon Frank Lampard provided an injury update of four of his players whose lay-offs have varied in length.
Mason Mount limped off during the midweek epic with Ajax but Lampard is confident he will fit to face Crystal Palace, but another midfielder named in Gareth Southgate’s England squad, Ross Barkley, won’t be involved this weekend.
‘Ross has got an ongoing issue so he’s not in the squad tomorrow,’ reported Lampard.
‘It’s a conversation I’ll have with Gareth [Southgate], Steve [Holland], Ross and everyone to see how it pans out for him over the next 10 days. I’m not sure on that one but he won’t be in our squad.
‘With Mason, he’s in the squad, we’re giving him another 24 hours and we’ll make a call on that one in the morning.’
Rudiger and Ruben
A longer-term absentee is Toni Rudiger, who has played 45 minutes of Premier League football since April. The German saw a specialist on Monday and Lampard had an update on his prospects.
‘He had an operation and is probably going to be out for around three weeks. We will have to see where the match fitness comes in then, because it is a long time he has been out now.
‘It was nice to get something definitive about it. We’ve been trying to find a solution. Toni has been having some issues. It’s not easy for a player in that position. Hopefully in three weeks’ time we will be in a lot better place.’
The other player definitely out tomorrow is Ruben Loftus-Cheek who continues to recover from his Achilles injury sustained in May.
‘It’s a long road, and it’s a difficult one for Ruben,’ Lampard explained.
‘He’s obviously keen, we all want him back, we know his quality but it’s going to be a while. I feel for him because people ask and the thing to say is I’m really pushing on, it might be next week, it might be next month, I don’t think that’s quite the case.
‘We’re all supporting him here, but there’s no immediate news.’