Chelsea encounter three fitness issues ahead of Burnley game

Three fresh fitness issues have emerged for Chelsea ahead of their next Premier League fixture against Burnley on March 30.

The Blues went into the international break on a high courtesy of thrilling victories over Newcastle United and Leicester City in the top flight and FA Cup last week.

On the injury front, there was also a huge boost for Mauricio Pochettino with Ben Chilwell shaking off a knee injury and Benoit Badiashile overcoming a groin issue to feature among the replacements in the latter of those games.

However, Chelsea have been required to deal with constant injuries throughout this campaign, and it appears that Pochettino will need to cast a watchful eye over the remaining international fixtures.

Since his players travelled to represent their respective countries, each of Cole Palmer, Malo Gusto and Carney Chukwuemeka have been ruled out of numerous fixtures.

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While the issue with regards to Palmer has not been disclosed, the playmaker was forced to miss England training sessions earlier in the week and has subsequently been ruled out of Saturday's encounter with Brazil at Wembley.

As it stands, the 21-year-old will remain with the Three Lions squad ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Belgium, although it is unclear whether he will be able to be involved.

Gusto has dropped out of the France Under-23s squad, who are preparing for the Olympic Games, due to illness and has been allowed to return home.

The right-back had previously completed the 90 minutes in the games with Newcastle and Leicester, and effectively now has a week to recover for the game with the Clarets.

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Chukwuemeka went into the international break on a high courtesy of scoring one of two decisive goals against Leicester - his first notable impact since the second weekend of the season.

He had hoped to build up his match fitness with England Under-21s against Azerbaijan on Friday, but he missed out entirely due to a knock received in training.

The 20-year-old may be in a position to return against Luxembourg on Tuesday before staking his claim for a starting role in Pochettino's side.

Chelsea will head into the Burnley fixture already without Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Lesley Ugochukwu, but Levi Colwill, Romeo Lavia and Christopher Nkunku may all be in a position to come back into contention.