Blues boss Sven-Goran Eriksson says that his squad does not have too many fitness worries ahead of the Premier League clash with Sam Allardyce’s side.
“Rolando is out,” Eriksson confirmed on Thursday afternoon. “It’s a groin problem that he had had before last Tuesday but he felt it during the second half. We hope he’ll be back training again on Tuesday, Vassell is also not back yet from his knee injury and of course Bojinov is still out but apart from that we are fine.”
Andreas Isaksson is also a long way down the road to recovery, but the Manager does not think he’s quite ready to challenge Kasper Schmeichel for the first team goalkeeper’s jersey.
“He’s not quite there, first he had his thumb injury, then he played for Sweden but came back to us and picked up an ankle injury. He did well in training today, but I doubt that he can say that is 100% yet. He had a good session, but I know that his ankle is sore and he is still having treatment so I hope he is back to 100% very soon to compete with the other two.”
Still on the subject of injuries, Sven also found the time to praise Michael Owen who will be missing on Saturday after going under the surgeon’s knife for a hernia operation this week.
“Michael’s been so unlucky with injuries over the last year, I was very happy for him when he came back and scored for England because he’s a nice lad. He’s only 27 but he’s been around for a long, long time and he has a lot of years left in him yet. I really hope that he will get fit and play again because that’s what he loves.”
