Levi Colwill injury: Chelsea boost as Mauricio Pochettino confirms surprise team news for Crystal Palace trip
Mauricio Pochettino has revealed Levi Colwill could make his Chelsea return against Crystal Palace on Monday.
The England defender has missed Chelsea’s last four games with a hamstring injury.
Pochettino says a final medical assessment on Sunday will determine whether the 20-year-old is fit for Monday’s trip to Selhurst Park.
“Levi Colwill, we need to wait until Sunday to see if it’s possible he’ll be available,” Pochettino said.
Pochettino said two other centre-backs could also recover in time for the Palace match, including Benoit Badiashile who was forced off late on in Wednesday’s 3-1 FA Cup replay win over Aston Villa.
“Badiashile, we need to assess him — we need to wait for a scan”, said Pochettino. “It’s not a big issue. I think this afternoon we will know better his situation.
“We need to wait for a scan. [Trevoh] Chalobah is doing well with the team. Other [than that], nothing to update at the moment.”
Chelsea produced one of their finest performances of the season at Villa Park on Wednesday, and Pochettino is hopeful his side will now use their momentum to turn a corner.
He said: “I think the difference is [that] the noise was big before. The difference is that the performance was really good. We really feel good because we realised we need to compete and win a different way.
“The way we approached the Aston Villa game was the way we need to approach [all] games. It is a good opportunity to be consistent in the next game.
“We always believe that now is the momentum and the time to be consistent. There are many things now that we need to keep for the future.”
Midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Conor Gallagher were both on the scoresheet on Wednesday, and Gallagher’s 11th-minute strike was his first goal of the season.
“Conor and Enzo are so good — really good players”, said an upbeat Pochettino. “They work so hard. Great for Conor, great for Enzo also.
“I feel so happy because they deserve to feel this way, to feel happy, and to enjoy playing football. These two guys work so hard to perform. I’m so happy with the performance of them.”
