Wesley Fofana missed Chelsea’s clash at Bournemouth on Saturday due to a hamstring injury. Shortly after the line-ups were announced, the club confirmed that Fofana had picked up a ‘slight hamstring problem’, with Benoit Badiashile taking his place in defence alongside Thiago Silva. In his pre-match press conference on Friday, Frank Lampard had claimed that he had no new injuries to worry about, but ahead of kick-off he said: ‘Fofana had a bit of an issue with his hamstring yesterday travelling down. So it’s more of a precaution on that one. Other than that, we’ve got a squad, so the players who come in have got to show what they can do.’ Lampard has made five changes to the side that were humiliated 3-1 at Arsenal last Tuesday, with Badiashile, Trevoh Chalobah, Mykhailo Mudryk, Conor Gallagher and Kai Havertz coming in for Fofana, Cesar Azpilicueta, Mateo Kovacic, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Raheem Sterling.
Fofana has endured a difficult first season at Chelsea since his £75million move from Leicester, having already missed 20 games through two separate knee injuries. It is unknown how long he will be out for, with Mason Mount, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella also on the sidelines, while Reece James and Armando Broja are out for the rest of the season. Bournemouth, who can move ahead of Chelsea in the table with a win, are unchanged from their 4-1 victory against Leeds last Sunday.