Chelsea’s Chilwell ruled out of clash against Man United

Chelsea left back Ben Chilwell is sidelined as he recovers from illness but right back Malo Gusto is back in training and ready for their Premier League clash against Manchester United, manager Mauricio Pochettino said on Wednesday.England international Chilwell also missed Chelsea’s 2-2 home draw against lowly Burnley on Saturday due to a leg injury after returning from international duty, while Frenchman Gusto was replaced by Alfie Gilchrist in the 87th minute.Trevoh Chalobah, Carney Chukwuemeka and goalkeeper Robert Sanchez are back in team training. Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Romeo Lavia, Christopher Nkunku and Lesley Ugochukwu are continuing their rehabilitation programmes."Trevoh and Malo have trained with us and they are ready to be in the squad. Ben, no. We didn’t see him from Friday. That was the last time we saw him. The medical staff have removed a lot of fluid from his knee,” Pochettino told reporters. "That was the situation after he arrived from the national team. Then on Saturday he got ill, and today he’s not here he’s at home trying to recover. Robert is training. We will see if he is coming on the list or not.”Pochettino added that Nkunku’s recovery is taking longer than expected. The versatile 26-year-old France forward has made only seven Premier League appearances since his 60mn close-season move from RB Leipzig.Chelsea, 12th in the standings with 40 points and 10 games remaining, today host sixth-placed United, who beat them 2-1 at Old Trafford in December. Pochettino added that his young side needed to improve quickly and defend their badge."We are Chelsea, but we need to behave like Chelsea, we need to behave like we want to belong to a big club,” the Argentine said. "It’s not an excuse to be a young or inexperienced player. We need to perform...There is not time to improve in one year or two years because the demand is so high from the Premier League and from the club. They need to say we are here, we have character and show we deserve to be playing at this amazing club. The fans will get behind us if we do that.”Meanwhile, Raphael Varane and Jonny Evans could yet give Manchester United some welcome fitness news by returning to the Red Devils’ injury-hit defence against Chelsea. Injuries have plagued United in an awkward second season for Dutch manager Erik ten Hag, with the side faltering in the Premier League and knocked out of Europe before Christmas.A lacklustre 1-1 draw with Brentford, where Sweden international Victor Lindelof suffered a hamstring injury that is likely to sideline him for a month, left United sixth in the table, nine points adrift of fifth-placed Tottenham. Lisandro Martinez has suffered a calf problem in training while fellow defenders Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are also sidelined.But United boss Ten Hag was optimistic Varane, who recently sounded the alarm about concussion in football, and Evans would be fit for Thursday’s match at Stamford Bridge. "No more issues – we don’t need (anymore)!” Ten Hag said. "On the frontline and in midfield we are OK, we have options there. But in the backline we have a lack of options, but the good thing is back in training this afternoon is Raphael Varane and Jonny Evans. And Harry Maguire was already yesterday back in training.”Ten Hag, questioned on why United had suffered so many muscle-related injuries this season, replied: "Yeah, we have an idea but we will work on that. I think internally we will deal with it.”He refused to elaborate further, saying only: "You can’t prevent. You see it’s not only us who’ve had this. The standards of the Premier League from an intensity perspective are so high, the overload in the schedule, also international football is so huge. We have all internationals in our squad and you see it’s not only us - (Manchester) City, Liverpool and Newcastle have the problems, so there are many other teams. In this moment, especially the defending department but in the midfield and frontline the players are available.”