Earlier on Wednesday, Enzo Maresca revealed the good news that Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke were all fit again after injury. Our head coach has since provided a further positive update on their status during a later interview.
The trio have all recovered from their respective knocks in time to face Tottenham in what Maresca described as a ‘huge’ London derby, both for the importance of the fixture historically and in terms of our Champions League hopes this season.
Asked whether Palmer, Jackson and Madueke were fit to start the game, Maresca replied ‘yes’, before commenting on their prospects of playing the full 90 minutes.
‘Probably Nico and Noni, no, because they come back after two months, and Cole is just in case he has to play 90 minutes.’
One player who has been regularly involved in recent weeks is Reece James. The skipper has featured in nine of our past 11 games, scoring two fine goals against Bournemouth and Copenhagen in that time, and showing his versatility by playing at full-back or in the heart of midfield.
Following a successful international break for James, which included a memorable first Three Lions goal against Latvia, Maresca explained how his fitness is being carefully managed.
He said: ‘The idea is to try to continue with him and not to use him every three days, because we want to help him be fit at least until the end of the season, and then from there to see if we can start and go again every three days.
‘Every day our medical staff speak with him to see how he is, to see if he is able to train, if it's good, if it's not good. In the last weeks he is training every day, he is good, and this is the reason why we are happy.’
Maresca explained a possible way James can benefit from being deployed in midfield. Overall, though, the head coach is happy to use James anywhere on the pitch depending on what the circumstances dictate.
‘Full-backs when they play up and down, they spend much more [energy] than when they go inside, for big distances and for the amount of times they go up and down,’ stated Maresca.
‘For sure the way we are using him in some games can help him...With Reece in this moment, he is working quite well. He is playing right full-back, left full-back, midfielder, it’s not only one. We have more players that play in different positions, so we are happy and hopefully the way we are using Reece, we are helping him to be fit.’