Chelsea have confirmed that Christopher Nkunku and Malo Gusto are both back in team training, but neither man will be ready for Friday's FA Cup fourth-round clash with Aston Villa.
The French pair were not able to take part in Tuesday's 6-1 EFL Cup crushing of Middlesbrough in the second leg of their semi-final, which sent Chelsea to Wembley thanks to a 6-2 aggregate success.
Summer signing Nkunku has been limited to a mere four appearances for his new club since transferring from RB Leipzig, picking up a hip injury not long after recovering from a serious knee problem.
Meanwhile, right-back Gusto was a starter in Chelsea's West London derby win over Fulham on January 13, before sitting out the destruction of Boro with an unspecified concern.
Mauricio Pochettino's side have just a 72-hour turnaround to play with before Villa head to Stamford Bridge for the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the Blues released their latest injury bulletin on Thursday afternoon.
In the update, Chelsea announced that Nkunku and Gusto were both working with the main group again for a "reconditioning phase", as is long-term thigh victim Trevoh Chalobah, who has not made a single appearance this season.
However, Pochettino admitted in his pre-game press conference that both would remain unavailable for the visit of the Lions, although there is hope that they can be involved when the Blues head to Liverpool on January 31.
"They could be available for Liverpool on Wednesday, maybe. We need to see how they progress in the next few days. We are positive but we will see. They are not going to be available for tomorrow," Pochettino said.
With the out-of-favour Chalobah also not expected to make the cut on Friday, Chelsea are set to be working around the absences of nine players, as Reece James (thigh), Wesley Fofana (ACL), Marc Cucurella (ankle), Robert Sanchez (knee), Lesley Ugochukwu (hamstring) and Romeo Lavia (thigh) are still rehabilitating.
In addition, Pochettino is not optimistic about Ben Chilwell's chances of starting against Unai Emery's side after the left-back completed 65 minutes of the 6-1 win over Boro, just his second appearance since his latest hamstring injury.
The 27-year-old had not started a competitive fixture since Chelsea beat Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0 in the third round of the EFL Cup on September 27, and Pochettino has hinted that he may demote Chilwell to the bench for Friday's game.
"He is an important player of course, if he is fit and can cope with the 90 minutes. But on Tuesday he could not cope because after 10 or 15 minutes of the second half he asked to come off because he needs to build his fitness," Pochettino added.
"Now we have doubts to start with him tomorrow because we are assessing him, if he can cope with another game after three days. It is a massive decision because we want to build his confidence and his fitness, to be consistent enough to play the rest of the season.
"That is why we are working really hard with the medical staff and the performance analysts to make the best decision. If he cannot start tomorrow he is going to be on the bench and we will see if he can play and help the team in the second half."
Chelsea sit five places below title outsiders Aston Villa in the Premier League table, but they have won each of their last seven matches at Stamford Bridge and have not lost an FA Cup fixture at the ground since February 2019, when Manchester United beat them 2-0. body check tags ::
