Graham Potter could be set to welcome back another one of his key Chelsea players for their Premier League clash against West Ham on Saturday. Reece James made his return to the Blues squad from the start before he was brought off just shy of the hour mark with Ben Chilwell and Raheem Sterling marking their comebacks from injury with cameo appearances from the bench.
Armando Broja and N'Golo Kante remain as the obvious long-term absentees at Stamford Bridge while Denis Zakaria, Christian Pulisic and Edouard Mendy still appear a few weeks from returning to training. Ruben Loftus-Cheek is another name back in the squad after injury issues plagued the final stages of his 2022 and a key summer signing could be set to make his return very soon.
When initially revealing the availability of James, Chilwell and Sterling for Fulham, Potter also gave the latest update on Wesley Fofana. “Ben Chilwell, Reece James, Raheem Sterling, and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] are back in the squad, not ready for 90 minutes but in the squad," he said. Wesley [Fofana] has been part training partly with the team and he will be stepping it up next week."
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That plan for Fofana seems to have been executed this week with the Frenchman back in full first-team training ahead of another London derby this weekend. The 22-year-old was purchased by Chelsea in the summer for £75million from Leicester, but injuries have seen him make just six appearances this season.
Fofana suffered a knee injury in the Champions League clash against AC Milan at Stamford Bridge in October where he scored his first Chelsea goal. The World Cup break looked set to hand him a number of weeks to step up his recovery ahead of the Blues' Premier League return against Bournemouth on Boxing Day.
However, Fofana suffered another setback in a behind-closed-doors friendly just a week away from the domestic season returning which he has yet to recover from fully.
In recent weeks the absence of Fofana has not been greatly missed with Benoit Badiashile and Thiago Silva forming an excellent partnership in the centre of defence. Nonetheless, Potter will undoubtedly be boosted by Fofana once again being available given the exclusion of Badiashile from Chelsea's Champions League knockout stage squad and Fofana could therefore be in line for a start against Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday, February 15.
Posting to Instagram, Fofana shared a picture of himself in Chelsea training with other members of the squad which indicates he is no longer just training alone, but is instead back in full training with his teammates, hinting at his availability for the weekend.
With Potter likely to stick to a back four against the German outfit in Europe next week, Fofana looks set to be competing with Trevoh Chalobah and Kalidou Koulibaly for the starting spot next to the indispensable Thiago Silva, thus giving Potter another major selection headache to deal with.
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