Enzo Maresca faces major Chelsea dilemma as 10 players could miss Brentford Premier League clash

Chelsea celebrate Joao Pedro's goal against Fulham (Image: Chris Lee - Chelsea FC)

Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia have been ruled out of Chelsea 's Premier League trip to Brentford this evening.

Badiashile and Lavia both returned to full training at the Blues' Surrey base this week but neither of them are fit enough to make the squad for the visit to the Gtech Community Stadium. Enzo Maresca was asked during Friday morning's press conference about the condition of the Chelsea duo, and said: "No [Lavia is not ready to return]. He [Badiashile] is in the same situation. Both are close, but not available for tomorrow."

Question marks remain over five other Chelsea players as well. Cole Palmer has not played the last two matches for the Blues because of a groin problem - and also missed England's games over the international break - but has now returned to full training.

However, the 23-year-old's first session back was on Thursday, meaning Maresca and his staff assessed him on Friday to see if he was fit enough to feature against Brentford.

"Cole took part of the session yesterday for the first time, not the entire session," the Chelsea head coach said . "Today [Friday] in the afternoon we have one more session, we're going to try with him, [see] if he's okay, otherwise he will be out tomorrow again."

Meanwhile, the South American quartet of Joao Pedro , Andrey Santos , Estevao Willian and Moises Caicedo all landed back in the UK on Thursday. Maresca is not quite sure yet whether the four are fit enough to take part in west London later this evening.

He said: "The three Brazilian players arrived yesterday [Thursday], but they did not train. They did some recovery sessions. Moi arrived last night, so I didn't see him. I will see him today.

"So, for all of them, it's a question mark for tomorrow. But when they play in Bolivia, it is so difficult that they can be back very soon."

Elsewhere, Levi Colwill remains out for the long term after the Chelsea defender suffered a serious ACL injury in pre-season. Dario Essugo underwent successful surgery on a thigh problem earlier in the week, while Liam Delap will be missing for "10-12 weeks" due to the hamstring injury he sustained against Fulham last time out in the Premier League.

The injuries are mounting up for Chelsea and Maresca, who is hoping the coming weeks will not affect his squad too much physically, with games coming thick and fast. The next 22 days presents an action-packed schedule for the Blues; with seven matches to be played in this period.

"The main focus will be recovery between one game and the other," Maresca said on the schedule. "That is the only thing you can try to do. Twenty-two days, seven games, every three days, you have a game.

"The focus has to be the recovery, how we can help players recover their energy. At the same time, try to win."