Marco Palestra and Emmanuel Emegha are on course to be available for Chelsea's Premier League match against Bournemouth, with both players spotted in training at Cobham. The duo have yet to feature competitively for the club since their summer arrivals.
Injury setbacks for summer signings
Emegha was unable to join the pre-season tour to Australia and Asia after sustaining a hamstring injury. Before that, the Dutchman, who joined from BlueCo sister club Strasbourg, had scored in behind-closed-doors friendlies against Crawley and Bromley under Xabi Alonso.
Palestra, meanwhile, was a regular throughout pre-season, featuring in friendly wins over Western Sydney Wanderers, AC Milan and Real Sociedad, as well as defeats to Tottenham and Juventus. However, the Italian suffered a quad problem before the opening game of the campaign against Fulham and has been sidelined since.
Alonso's update on Palestra
“The injury is something on the quad. He's almost in the last stages of the recovery, so we will see. If [he is] not [fit for] Brentford, then Bournemouth for sure,” Alonso said of Palestra. “He's quite frustrated after a very good pre-season not to be able to play and to make his debut in the Premier League.
“But I told Marco, ‘Easy, the season is long, there will be a lot of games, and you will play your role, you will have your minutes, you will enjoy your game.’ He is full of energy, and you need to control that.”
Training return at Cobham
Palestra and Emegha were put through their paces at Cobham, suggesting they could be in contention for the match at Stamford Bridge a week on Saturday. Also present in the training session were Danny Welbeck, Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill, Jordan Henderson, Pep Chavarria and Wesley Fofana.
