Maresca delivers update on Colwill and Madueke fitness

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca doesn’t believe there is reason for concern over the fitness of Levi Colwill and Noni Madueke after both were withdrawn in our 1-1 draw with Nottingham Forest.

Our England internationals, due to join up with their country in the coming days for fixtures against Greece and Finland, started this afternoon’s clash at Stamford Bridge but didn’t complete 90 minutes.

Madueke hobbled off late in the contest and Colwill followed soon after having played much of the second half in discomfort.

Maresca was asked in his post-match press conference about the fitness of the pair and he replied: ‘I think they are both ok when they went inside [to the changing room]. We will see but I don’t think there is any problem there.’

Today’s draw was hard-fought. Chris Wood put the visitors ahead shortly after half time but Madueke responded for the Blues before the hour mark with an excellent shot into the far corner from 15 yards.

Our equaliser coupled with a 78th-minute red card shown to James Ward-Prowse heightened the emotions inside Stamford Bridge.

And in the latter minutes of the game, a handful of yellow cards were brandished by referee Chris Kavanagh following a touchline dispute involving both sets of players.

Notably, Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella were among those booked and will miss our match away at Liverpool following the international break having been shown five yellow cards this season.

Yet the strength of the Blues squad, as highlighted by Maresca, ensures there is quality ready to step into the side no matter the circumstance.

The Chelsea head coach said: ‘Every club has around 25 players, so it’s not something just for us, but the way we have tried to do things is to share minutes across all of them, and the reason why is because they deserve it.

‘Those who played the other day in the Conference League [on Thursday night] did well and deserved to start again, but there was another eleven that did a fantastic job against Brighton.

‘We try to use all of them in the best way and, for sure, when we have an injury, red cards, or like now when we will not have Wes and Marc, we are going to use some of the guys who today were not in the first eleven.’