Chelsea vs Brentford injury news as nine players out for Premier League fixture

Chelsea are back in action on Wednesday night as they look to salvage a top-half finish amid a disappointing campaign. The Blues are currently in 11th place, and they head into Wednesday night’s West London derby after going seven games without a win across all competitions.

Frank Lampard has a tough job to turn the ship around in the short time he has in charge between now and the end of the season. With the European spots all-but ruled out, Chelsea must now battle for a top-half spot, sitting five points behind 10th placed Brentford with a game in-hand, and to that end, this game is an important one for the Blues.

However, ahead of the clash, Chelsea have been battling a number of injury issues, with Armando Broja and Kalidou Koulibaly ruled out. Elsewhere, Reece James looks set to miss out for the rest of the season, with Lampard saying: “Reece James is unavailable for this game and probably for the rest of the season as well. Reece had a hamstring injury that he picked up in the Madrid game, got through the game, but we scanned it in the following days and he’ll be out.”

Kai Havertz is also out, with Lampard adding: “Kai is still struggling a bit with his knee so he hasn’t been training with us, which is obviously disappointing for us, but he should be back training at the start of the week.”

And to round off the Chelsea injuries, Mason Mount is also sidelined. “Mason is the same as Reece unfortunately, although he possibly might be back in time for our last game of the season, but that’s not certain,” Lampard added. “Mason has been carrying this pelvic injury for quite a while, it definitely predates myself by a while.

“He’s been trying, typically, and the medical staff have been trying, but we’ve got to the stage now where he will have minor surgery and that will be probably a four-week recovery, and we all know where that gets us to.”

As for Brentford, Thomas Frank has confirmed that Christian Norgaard will miss out, saying: “Christian will not be available. He’s got some issues with his Achilles that they’re trying to get on top of.”

Kevin Schade is back, but the same can’t be said of Keane Lewis-Potter, Pontus Jansson and Kristoffer Ajer, who are all out.