Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed Alex and Ashley Cole will start but Yury Zhirkov misses out as we prepare to travel to Birmingham.
The manager gave an in-depth update on the club's injury situation prior to boarding the team coach at Cobham, with mixed news.
First there was confirmation that Alex will play, despite requiring surgery on his knee and missing last week's defeat to Sunderland.
'Tomorrow Alex will be available to play, this is good news, he trained well with the Brazilian team but we know that he needs to have surgery,' Ancelotti said. 'Now we are in the position that we can [delay] this, but we know he needs to have surgery. It's not a risk, but his knee needs to be cleaned up.
'Obviously Alex is a centre-back, he is used to playing there, but I don't want to say we lost the game because we put four full-backs in the back four. We lost the game because we played a poor game. I think it was the first time in my period here.
'We need to move on immediately and to have a reaction. It will not be because Alex is centre-back, it will be everyone working for the team and showing good mental attitude and fighting spirit.
'We want to forget Sunderland with a fantastic performance, we can play well and maintain the top of the table. The championship unfortunately does not finish tomorrow. If tomorrow was the last game then I think we would have a lot of possibility to win the title, but we have to play a lot of games again.
'Tomorrow we have a good squad,' he continued. 'We have Cech, we have Alex, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Malouda, Mikel, Ramires, Kalou, Drogba, Anelka. It is a good squad. There are 10 players in my list but we want to play with 11, I have to choose the right-back.
'I have to choose one of them, Bosingwa played 90 minutes against Spain, and Ferreira is fresh but Bosingwa had good recovery and I think he can play.
'We have a problem with Zhirkov because he played on the artificial pitch, he has tightness on his calf so he is not able to play tomorrow.'
The manager gave an in-depth update on the club's injury situation prior to boarding the team coach at Cobham, with mixed news.
First there was confirmation that Alex will play, despite requiring surgery on his knee and missing last week's defeat to Sunderland.
'Tomorrow Alex will be available to play, this is good news, he trained well with the Brazilian team but we know that he needs to have surgery,' Ancelotti said. 'Now we are in the position that we can [delay] this, but we know he needs to have surgery. It's not a risk, but his knee needs to be cleaned up.
'Obviously Alex is a centre-back, he is used to playing there, but I don't want to say we lost the game because we put four full-backs in the back four. We lost the game because we played a poor game. I think it was the first time in my period here.
'We need to move on immediately and to have a reaction. It will not be because Alex is centre-back, it will be everyone working for the team and showing good mental attitude and fighting spirit.
'We want to forget Sunderland with a fantastic performance, we can play well and maintain the top of the table. The championship unfortunately does not finish tomorrow. If tomorrow was the last game then I think we would have a lot of possibility to win the title, but we have to play a lot of games again.
'Tomorrow we have a good squad,' he continued. 'We have Cech, we have Alex, Ivanovic, Ashley Cole, Malouda, Mikel, Ramires, Kalou, Drogba, Anelka. It is a good squad. There are 10 players in my list but we want to play with 11, I have to choose the right-back.
'I have to choose one of them, Bosingwa played 90 minutes against Spain, and Ferreira is fresh but Bosingwa had good recovery and I think he can play.
'We have a problem with Zhirkov because he played on the artificial pitch, he has tightness on his calf so he is not able to play tomorrow.'
No comments:
Post a Comment