Chelsea have suffered a double injury blow with Reece James and Mason Mount expected to miss the rest of the season, interim boss Frank Lampard confirmed on Tuesday.
James has been restricted to just 14 Premier League starts due to a series of fitness problems and suffered a fresh setback in the second leg of last week’s Champions League quarterfinal exit to Real Madrid.
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Mount has been hampered by a pelvic problem in recent months and will now undergo an operation.
Lampard suggested there was an outside chance of Mount being available for Chelsea’s final game of the season at home to Newcastle on May 28 but gave a downbeat prognosis when speaking ahead of Wednesday’s Premier League home game against Brentford.
“Reece James is unavailable probably for the season, Mason Mount the same,” Lampard said. “[Mount has] potential [to be fit] for the last game of the season but probably not. So that’s obviously disappointing for us.
“[It is a big blow] for all of us because they are big players. Reece had a hamstring injury that he picked up in the [Real] Madrid game, got through the game but we scanned it in the following days.
“And Mason has been carrying this pelvic injury for quite a while, it definitely pre-dates myself a while. He’s been trying, typically, and the medical staff have been trying but we’ve got to a stage now where he’ll have minor surgery and then probably a four-week recovery which we all know where that gets us to.”
Lampard refused to be drawn on the identity of Chelsea’s next permanent manager as the club narrows their search for Graham Potter’s successor to a three-man shortlist headed by former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino.
“I’m not going to get involved in any future manager talk because it is all speculation, simple as that,” Lampard said.
It was originally anticipated that Lampard would remain in charge until the end of the season regardless of whether Pochettino or another manager is confirmed in the coming weeks.
But asked specifically whether he expected to remain in post until the summer, Lampard defended his record of four consecutive defeats and replied: “I wouldn’t expect anything in football but I think it is very clear that we came into this club when it is in big difficulties.
“We had one day to prepare for Wolves, two games against Real Madrid. The second performance was much better, a proper term performance like I’d want to see.
“In the game in between that against Brighton, we had to change a lot of the squad so there were a lot of factors as to the four games we’ve had since I’ve been working here. The team and the club has been struggling for a while.
“We came in with a view to help and we will keep working to help in the short time — the world won’t change in a short time — but we’ll keep doing our maximum to do that.”
Chelsea are out of all cup competitions and sit 11th in the Premier League but Lampard rejected the suggestion the club’s season is over.
“It feels like it with the tone of your question, if I’m honest,” Lampard said. “If you want to think that, yeah, but I’m the manager of Chelsea. I have a big link to this club, pride and so should the players. If you want to take it down your route, it is over, but for my route it is absolutely not over.”