Why Joao Felix is not in Chelsea squad to face Man City
Joao Felix is not in Chelsea's 20-man squad for their Premier League match with Manchester City today.
The Portuguese has been granted compassionate leave and is set to fly home after a family bereavement, football.london understands.
The Blues travel to the Etihad Stadium as they look to take a huge step in the race for the top four this season. However, Felix won't be in Manchester with the rest of his teammates.
READ MORE: Man City vs Chelsea highlights: Foden and Haaland win it for hosts after Sanchez horror show
READ MORE: Full Arsenal squad available for Wolves as six players ruled out after fresh injury blow
Felix has featured 12 times in the Premier League this season since re-signing for Chelsea. Only three of those appearances, however, have come from the start with the Portugal international behind Cole Palmer in the pecking order.
Speaking about the 25-year-old on Friday morning, head coach Enzo Maresca detailed just why he has not played as much as he would have liked. "For sure, Joao is a Chelsea player. The problem, unfortunately, for Joao and Christo [Nkunku], the manager plays most of the games with one attacking midfielder and that is Cole Palmer.
"We have decided to play with an attacking midfielder in most of the games, so this is the reason why Joao and Christo struggle to get minutes - not for any different reasons because they are both fantastic players, fantastic guys who work well.
"The reason why is only because most of the games I decide to play with one attacking midfielder in terms of balance. This is the reason why."
Chelsea will also be without Romeo Lavia for today's crucial match. The Belgian midfielder, who has struggled with injury problems since signing for the Blues around 18 months ago, is sidelined with another muscular problem and there is no clear indication on when he will return to action.
"Last year, he played zero games and this year, he has played around 15 games," Maresca said on Lavia. "If we see it that way then it is an improvement. More or less, the same thing happened with Wes [Fofana].
"Last year, he [Fofana] played zero games and this year he was always playing. You cannot go from one season where you play no games to the next playing 40 games.
"You have to be happy with 20-25 and probably the year after you can play 40. For Romeo, I feel sad for him because I know he wants to be part of the game every weekend but unfortunately he is injured again.
"But hopefully he can be back and help us in the last games of the season because we have just 16 games of the season left and we hope to have Romeo back for the last 10."
