Chelsea's injury crisis is set to continue for a little while longer, with no fewer than four key players picking up problems during the international break.
The Blues have battled the injury bug all season, with a whole host of important players forced into periods on the sidelines for various reasons.
As noted by the Daily Mail, their injury struggles will continue as Andreas Christensen, N'Golo Kanté, Mateo Kovacic and Reece James all pulled up injured whilst on international duty with their respective sides.
Christensen managed 87 minutes of Denmark's 1-0 win over Switzerland before hobbling off the pitch with a groin injury, and he did not feature at all in Tuesday's 4-0 win over Luxembourg, so his chances of being fit for Chelsea's next game against Newcastle United on Saturday.
Kanté didn't feature at all for France after suffering a minor groin injury during the warm-up ahead of their 1-0 win over Iceland, but he was fit enough to do some late training and feature on the bench for the 1-1 draw with Turkey.
France boss Didier Deschamps played down the severity of Kanté's injury but, given this is the fourth separate injury which the midfielder has suffered this season, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard may decide against risking him.
Lampard will also have to make a decision about Kovacic, who was forced off at half time of Croatia's 1-1 draw with Wales after being on the wrong end of a tough tackle from Tottenham's Ben Davies.
Finally, James was forced to pull out of the England Under-21 squad amid concerns his fitness was not up to scratch just yet. The youngster has only recently returned from a lengthy absence with an ankle injury, and may not be ready for consistent first-team minutes just yet.
With both Antonio Rüdiger and Ruben Loftus-Cheek also expected to miss the game, Chelsea certainly are far from full strength heading into their meeting with Newcastle.
The squad is looking particularly thin at both centre-back and in central midfield, so Lampard may be forced to call on youngsters like Marc Guehi and Billy Gilmour to help the squad cope with the plethora of absences.
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Source : 90min