The Colombian international was left out of the matchday squad altogether for the trip to Porto along with fellow striker LoA?c R my and midfielder Oscar, but could make his first league start on Saturday
Chelsea FC manager Jos Mourinho has no new injury worries, with only Belgian Thibaut Courtois remaining on the sidelines with a long-term knee injury. Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of the game against Southampton on Saturday, the Portuguese confirmed that Courtois would be out until at least December.
“Courtois is recovering well, working well, but obviously he cannot fight the time,” Mourinho said (via Daily Express). “He has that time until he is back. December for him. First week, second, third? We dona t know, but ita s December for sure.”
Meanwhile, Chelsea FC striker Diego Costa will serve the last of his three-game ban, opening up the possibility of Colombian striker Radamel Falcao making his first league start for the Blues. The poor performance of R my against his former club last weekend also suggests Falcao could get the chance to lead from the start.
Addressing a question about Oscar, Falcao and R my, the three Chelsea FC players who were left behind in England with the squad flying to Portugal to face FC Porto, Mourinho said (via . Goal UK): “My assistant reported that [Loic] Remy, Oscar and [Radamel] Falcao trained fantastically well when the squad was in Porto.”
The Chelsea FC coach also spoke at length about his decision to leave out the trio, and his rotation policy in general. He is quoted as saying at his pre-match press conference (via chelseafc.com):
“If you play fantastically well for five matches, you get some stability in the team, you keep the core and you dona t change much. Thata s normal. When there is some instability you try to find why the performance was better here and not so good here; why the player who made this mistake didna t make another one. Ita s normal.
“What we do is work when we can. We played Tuesday. Wednesday was more about recovering, but yesterday and today we worked, we analysed, we tried to make the best decisions. Ita s normal to try and find solutions to win the next game.”