Enzo Maresca could be without South Americans for Chelsea’s trip to Brentford

Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca could be without four of his South American stars for Saturday’s trip to Brentford.

The Blues’ three Brazilians – Joao Pedro, Estevao Willian and Andrey Santos – arrived back in England on Thursday after playing in their country’s 1-0 defeat to Bolivia, whilst Moises Caicedo returned late on Thursday night following Ecuador’s victory over Argentina.

Brazil’s game took place at an altitude of more than 4,000m, creating a further complicating factor in recovery times.

“The three Brazilian players arrived yesterday, they didn’t train, they did some recovery sessions,” said Maresca. “Moises arrived last night. They’re all a question mark for tomorrow.”

Enzo Fernandez was suspended for Argentina’s World Cup qualifiers and remained at the club’s Cobham training base.

Both the world champions and Brazil had already secured their place at next summer’s finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico prior to the latest round of fixtures.

The Italian also confirmed that striker Liam Delap is likely to be out for up to 12 weeks following the hamstring injury he sustained before the international break.

The 22-year-old went off in the first half of Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Fulham with his return date now pushed back beyond the initial forecast of six to eight weeks, possibly as far as December.

The club recalled striker Marc Guiu from his season-long loan at Sunderland on deadline day after failing in their attempt to call off Nicolas Jackson’s loan move to Bayern Munich.

“Liam is around 10, 12 weeks,” said Maresca. “A long way to go.

“The injury means we only have Guiu as a nine. Joao also can play there, against Fulham we used Ty (Tyrique George) as a nine, we can think about him also.”

Cole Palmer was due to be assessed on Friday for the trip to Brentford having not played since the opening-weekend draw with Crystal Palace.

He was not included in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for last week’s games against Andorra and Serbia.

“Cole took part (Thursday) for the first time, not the entire session,” said Maresca. “We’ll see today (Friday) if he’s OK, otherwise tomorrow he’ll be out again.

“He was injured, he’s recovering. We’re not managing him, he’s just recovering.”

Maresca said there was no anxiety amongst his team regarding the 74 charges that have been brought against the club over payments to agents.

The charges relate to transfers completed during the 2010-11 to 2015-16 seasons, whilst the club was under the ownership of Roman Abramovich, and concern the use of unauthorised intermediaries.

The PA news agency understands Chelsea are expecting to receive a fine rather than a points deduction or transfer ban and that the matter is expected to be concluded swiftly.

“I know the club are satisfied about the situation, about the process,” said Maresca. “Personally I don’t have anything to add because I don’t have any idea. If I say something I could be wrong. I just focus on the pitch side, which I can control.

“I don’t think the players are too worried about the situation to be honest.”