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Antonio Rudiger could make his first appearance for Chelsea since September, following his inclusion in their squad for Tuesday’s Champions League home clash against Lille after recovering from injury.
This was revealed by Chelsea manager Frank Lampard on Monday, ahead of the game against Lille.
Rudiger’s last featured for Chelsea three months ago after sustaining a groin injury in his first game against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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He had missed the start of the season after having knee surgery.
Lampard Also revealed that Fikayo Tomori will not be in action against the French club due to a slight hip strain.
“He (Rudiger) is in the squad, so there’s a chance,” said Lampard. “It’s good to have him back, he’s been training really well.
“He’s got a lot of his fitness work done since the injury healed.
“The other news I suppose is that Tomori is out. He’s got a small tiny strain around his hip area and it’s been bothering him so I’ve taken him out for a few days.”
Speaking further on Rudiger, Lampard said:”He looks fit and ready to go. I know he’s hungry.
“In terms of people building him up, it’s probably rightly so. Everybody spoke about youth at the start of the season and transfer bans.
“The idea that we started the season with five big players all injured for a period of time. Carrying on that now, Rudiger is just back and Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is a big player for us as well.
“You do miss those individuals, let’s see what he can add for us now.”
Chelsea had their transfer ban lifted by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday but Lampard insists he won’t rush into making signings in the January window.
“I think you’ve got to be careful with being too reactionary,” he said. “Ban lifted, defeat at Everton. It’s quite easy to come to that conclusion I suppose.
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“Just as much as people were saying at the start of the season that we’ve got all these young boys, this is going to be no problem we don’t need any players. At a club like Chelsea, it’s a balance.
“You have a strong squad, which I believe we have, but you have to look at whether we can strengthen.
“There will be times going forward, whether it’s January or next summer, of course we’re going to look at the opportunity to strengthen because we want to improve.”
