Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful Moises Caicedo will be well enough to face Crystal Palace tomorrow, but he will have to do so without the services of fellow central midfielders Enzo Fernandez and Lesley Ugochukwu.

Enzo and Caicedo missed the defeat to the Wolves due to injury and illness, respectively. Ugochukwu, meanwhile, returned to the team at Molineux but had to be withdrawn in the second half with what Pochettino believes was a reoccurrence of his hamstring injury.

‘Enzo no, but we hope Moi yes,’ replied the head coach when asked about the South American duo’s chances of playing against Palace.

‘Moi was better on Sunday. He had a high fever, and that is why he was isolated. We hope he can train a little bit and be ready for Palace.

‘We need to assess Lesley; I think he felt his hamstring again [against Wolves]. You have to be careful when introducing players coming back from injuries, but the problem of Moi meant it was a difficult situation.

Lesley limped off at Molineux

‘He is a player we are going to miss, hopefully not too much because in a period like this we need all the players.’

Pochettino then expanded on our ongoing injury travails.

‘The frustration and disappointment are there,’ he said. ‘I promise all the people, we are working so hard, and the medical staff and the performance area are working really hard to try to anticipate and avoid these problems.

‘Sometimes it’s the profile of the player, sometimes it’s bad luck, sometimes it’s not the same for a 19- or 20-year-old who arrived from France, like in Lesley’s case, and we expect he plays and performs for Chelsea in the Premier League.’

One player Pochettino has been able to welcome back from injury in the past week is Christopher Nkunku.

Nkunku scores his first Chelsea goal

The forward banked more than 60 minutes of match action in his first two games in Chelsea blue and opened his account for the club with a well-taken header late on at Wolves.

And Pochettino has explained why he has opted to deploy Nkunku in a central role thus far.

‘At the moment he is coming back from injury, his best position is more like a 10 or a 9, more than the left or right side like a winger. To cope with the demands of the Premier League and what the team needs, it’s better in these positions.

‘He is now starting to understand the Premier League—that teams are very aggressive and the football is very different from other countries.

‘It’s good for him, more minutes. He will adapt little by little, but scoring will help him adapt quicker.’