Potter won’t use injury pile-up as an excuse
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Chelsea's Reece James with manager Graham Potter after being substituted due to injury in the Premier League match against Bournemouth.
REUTERS
LONDON - Chelsea manager Graham Potter insisted he will not use player absences and injuries as an excuse should the Blues fail to get a favourable result in their Premier League trip to Nottingham Forest on New Year’s Day.
Mateo Kovacic and Hakim Ziyech are back in the squad after they returned to training following the World Cup. Both were given extra time to recover after their countries – Croatia and Morocco – contested the third-place play-off after their semi-final run.
The duo were not available for Chelsea’s Premier League win against Bournemouth on Tuesday, but Potter confirmed on Friday they are ready for the trip to struggling Forest.
“Both of those guys will be back,” he said, although he added that goalkeeper Edouard Mendy is a doubt because of an injury sustained while playing for Senegal at the World Cup.
“We’ll see how he is over the next few days. He has a problem that he picked up at the World Cup and needed a little bit of time.”
Chelsea were dealt a fresh blow when full-back Reece James was injured against Bournemouth and Potter admits the toll of injuries on his squad, and the fact that so many players were in Qatar, has been tough to handle.
“The (World Cup) break hasn’t been a positive one for us,” the 47-year-old said. “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.”
Chelsea are eighth in the table before Saturday’s matches and have ground to make up if they are to join the battle for a top-four finish.
Potter is aware that any poor result from now cannot be blamed on injuries as expectations are high at Chelsea.
“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 or excuses,” he said. “You’ve got to get on with it, and we’ve got to try our best to find the answers.”
N’Golo Kante and Armando Broja remain out for the Blues with long-term injuries while James is unavailable again. REUTERS
