Sarri to assess Loftus-Cheek ahead of Southampton game

Maurizio Sarri is considering his options ahead of Sunday’s game. [Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire]

Maurizio Sarri says he will assess Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s fitness before deciding whether the midfielder will be involved in Sunday’s game at Southampton.

Loftus-Cheek, overlooked by Sarri and then sidelined by a shin injury, returned to action in Thursday’s Europa League win over MOL Vidi.[phone]

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He played 66 minutes of the game at Stamford Bridge and will be hoping to play some part against the Saints.

But head coach Sarri said: “I have to see the recovery of the player because he has played for the first time from the beginning – he has played for the first time 65-70 minutes. So I want to see the recovery.”

Sarri again voiced concern about Chelsea’s defensive shortcomings after the narrow win.

Chelsea scraped a 1-0 victory courtesy of Alvaro Morata’s goal 20 minutes from time.

And they endured some difficult moments as the Hungarian underdogs threatened.

Sarri said: “We have conceded two or three opportunities to the opponent and I think we have to do better in the defensive phase.

“To avoid the counter-attacks of the opponents, we have to do better.”

Chelsea missed a number of chances in the first half but Sarri was more concerned with what went wrong at the other end of the pitch.

He said: “I was worried about the fact that we have conceded three goal opportunities to the opponents. I am not worried if we don’t score for 45 minutes.”

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