Chelsea will be without Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella for Tuesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final trip to Cardiff City. Palmer, who is managing a groin injury, is being rested and cannot play two matches in a week. Cucurella is suspended after picking up two yellow cards in the competition.
Chelsea will be without Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella for Tuesday's Carabao Cup quarter-final trip to Cardiff City.
Palmer, who is managing a groin injury, is being rested and cannot play two matches in a week.
Cucurella is suspended after picking up two yellow cards in the competition. His absence ends a run of 11 consecutive starts and full 90-minute appearances for both club and country.
Defender Jorrel Hato, who has not played for six weeks after struggling against Qarabag in the Champions League, is likely to come in.
Midfielder Moises Caicedo is also in the squad after serving a three-match ban.
"He is available, can play and back finally and - if we decide to use him - he can play," said Maresca.
Academy trio Shim Mheuka, Reggie Walsh and Landon Emenalo trained with Chelsea's first team on Monday but are not expected to be in the squad, having prepared for an FA Youth Cup match at Brentford with the rest of the under-18s squad.
When asked if he will make changes, Maresca said: "We're going to make some changes. We'll see how many, but for sure we have players that in the past 12, 13 days have played five games. So they probably need to recover energy."
Meanwhile, Maresca still does not know when Romeo Lavia will return from injury, but Dario Essugo is believed to be close to a comeback. Liam Delap remains out until 2026.
At Cardiff City, Chelsea have not granted the required written permission for their opponents to use loanee attacker Omari Kellyman in the match.
Category: General Sports
