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Chelsea have received a couple of boosts on the injury front ahead of this weekend's Premier League fixture against London rivals Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium
With all that has been said - and there has been plenty - about Chelsea's red cards this season, Liam Rosenior will be desperate for one of his players to avoid being yellow carded in the coming weeks.
Moises Caicedo has been booked eight times in the Premier League this season. That means the Ecuadorian is now two bookings away from a two-match suspension in the league, if he picks them up before matchday 33. The cut-off point for a suspension is the 32nd match of the Premier League season, meaning Caicedo has five more games to avoid being booked twice.
Chelsea have already had to deal without Caicedo for five games in all competitions this season. Caicedo was given a one-match ban for picking up five yellow cards in Chelsea's 19th match of the Premier League season.
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The 24-year-old, who was crowned Chelsea's Player of the Season for his efforts last term, was handed an automatic three-match ban for violent conduct in the draw with Arsenal in November and has also served a suspension in the Carabao Cup for accumulating too many yellow cards. Losing Caicedo for two Premier League matches would be a huge blow for Rosenior but his squad - at the time of writing - is in a much better condition than it has been at times this season.
Romeo Lavia played his first competitive minutes in three-and-a-half months last week for Chelsea's Under-21s side. Lavia managed the opening 45 minutes at the club's training centre in Cobham before being named on the bench for the first team's draw with Burnley 24 hours later. Unsurprisingly, given Chelsea are being extra cautious with the Belgian, he did not make it onto the pitch on Saturday afternoon but his availability is a big plus for Rosenior.
The 22-year-old midfielder could be named in Chelsea's squad for the short trip to the Emirates Stadium this weekend. Whether or not he gets any minutes under his belt remains to be seen.
Elsewhere, Chelsea have been boosted by Dario Essugo's return to first-team training. The 20-year-old midfielder, who was brought to Stamford Bridge last summer, is yet to feature for the club this season.
Essugo underwent surgery on his thigh back in September and that ruled him out until December. After a few weeks on the training field in Cobham, Essugo then suffered an unrelated setback, but is now close to returning to action.
We will hear more from Rosenior on Essugo's fitness on Friday in his pre-match press conference. If he can be included in the travelling squad for the Arsenal match, then this would give Rosenior five options to choose from in the centre of midfield.
Caicedo, Essugo, Lavia, Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos would see Chelsea have a fully fit midfield for the first time this season.
Meanwhile, we are also expecting to hear an update on Estevao Willian on Friday. The Brazil international was absent for Saturday's draw with Burnley due to a hamstring problem. As football.london reported at the weekend, Estevao was due to undergo a scan before the club discovered the severity of the issue.
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