Chelsea receive Super Cup boost as Willian and Antonio Rudiger travel to Istanbul

Reinforcements | Lampard must now decide whether to throw the senior plays straight into the side
Getty Images
James Olley15 August 2019

Willian has handed Chelsea manager Frank Lampard a significant boost by travelling with the squad to Istanbul for Wednesday’s Uefa Super Cup against Liverpool.

The midfielder missed Sunday’s 4-0 loss at Manchester United due to his engagement with Brazil at the Copa America – a competition the hosts won by beating Peru in the final on July 7.

Willian missed that match due to a knee problem and has since been working on his rebuilding his fitness away from the first-team group in recent days.

However, he was set to train with his team-mates this afternoon with Lampard ready to recall the 31-year-old to the starting line-up if ready in light of last weekend’s chastening defeat at Old Trafford.

Antonio Rudiger is also believed to have made the journey and it remains to be seen whether Lampard also rushes the defender back ahead of schedule given the error-strewn display against United.

Chelsea squad 2019-20 | Injuries, contracts and squad numbers

1/29

Kurt Zouma conceded an early penalty with a clumsy challenge while Andreas Christensen was one of several players singled out by Jose Mourinho as not being experienced enough for a game of that magnitude.

Rudiger would add some much-needed steel to the heart of Chelsea’s defence, which is likely to face a more searching test against Liverpool given the potency of their attack.

Willian has returned after competing for Brazil in the Copa America Photo: AP
AP

N’Golo Kante is a strong candidate to start for similar reasons after being restricted to a 17-minute cameo against United as he steps up his return from a knee injury.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in