The two players were last in action on 17 December when the World Cup’s third-fourth place match was decided in Croatia’s favour, although the tournament was an undoubted success for Ziyech’s Morocco too as they made history for an African side.

Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea Kovacic and Ziyech update

Following a short post-Qatar break, Kovacic and Ziyech have been in training at Cobham this week.

‘Both of those guys will be back,’ reported Potter, although he had less certain news on another World Cup player due to an issue in his upper-body area.

‘Mendy we're not sure, we’ll see how he is over the next few days. He has a problem with a bone that he picked up at the World Cup and needed a little bit of time.’

Speaking more generally about the injury count, added to by Reece James’s problem in our most recent game, Potter thought back to the match before the Premier League was paused for the World Cup, when we played up in Newcastle.

‘We had no Kepa, no Reece, no Wesley, no Ben Chilwell, no N’Golo Kante, no Raheem Sterling. We lost Marc Cucurella overnight with illness. We lost Ruben Loftus-Cheek after a few minutes, we lost Azpi after some more minutes, and that was just the period we were in, and we’ve still got quite a few guys available.

‘That's the challenge of the multiple competitions, the multiple games in a short space of time with the World Cup coming up. It sounds like I'm making excuses. I'm not, I'm just telling you what I think the situation is and we have to deal with it.

Chelsea injury update

‘The break hasn't been a positive one for us. I could have made lots of excuses if the Bournemouth result hadn't gone our way because we had four players for the first two weeks and then them dripping back in.

'The break that you think you have to work with the team, it's not there because you haven’t got the players. But you can’t make those excuses, you’ve just got to win and we did against Bournemouth so that was good.’

Potter highlights that the job now is to get as many players back on the pitch as we can, adding:

‘It's been a real tough period, as challenging as it has been in my time as a coach, but we're at Chelsea and people don't want to hear those reasons/excuses. You've got to get on with it, and we've got to try our best to find the answers.’

Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea injury list

N'Golo Kante and Armando Broja are Chelsea's long-term absentees.

Morgan Gibbs-White is an injury doubt for Nottingham Forest, as is Jesse Lingard. Omar Richards, Cheikhou Kouyate and Moussa Niakhate are out long-term.

Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea suspension

There are no suspensions for this game.

In the Premier League, five yellow cards received before 19 league fixtures (Crystal Palace at home on 15 January) have been played will result in a one-match suspension in the competition.

• Premier League booking list

Havertz 3, James 3, Jorginho 3, R Sterling 3, Azpilicueta 2, Cucurella 2, Koulibaly 2, Kovacic 2, Mount 2, Aubameyang 1, Chalobah 1, Chilwell 1, Gallagher 1, Loftus-Cheek 1, Mendy 1, Pulisic 1, Thiago Silva 1

Nottingham Forest vs Chelsea referee and VAR

Referee: Peter Bankes
VAR: Andre Marriner

Peter Bankes will referee Chelsea for the first time this season. His most recent Blues game was at Stamford Bridge against Wolves in May.

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