Lampard: Kovacic should score more

Frank Lampard wants more goals from Mateo Kovacic after the midfielder finally opened his account for Chelsea.

Kovacic scored his first goal for the Blues as they drew 2-2 with Valencia in the Champions League.

The result means Chelsea will seal qualification for the knockout stage if they beat Lille in the final group match.

Boss Lampard said: “We’ve had a lot of jokes with Kovacic – between me and him and between probably the whole squad and him – because he’s a player of such quality who should be arriving in the box more and should score more goals.

“It’s a project for him, for me and for our staff to get him more goals – and he could have scored two today.

“I’m delighted for him and I hope that’s the start of something new, because with his attributes he should score more and he knows that.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea are assessing an injury Tammy Abraham suffered.

The England forward picked up what initially looked like a significant hip injury, although further examination seemed to suggest the problem might not be overly serious.

Abraham landed awkwardly on Valencia defender Ezequiel Garay after going up for a header just before half-time.

Abraham walked off the pitch holding his side, but then had to be transferred to a stretcher. He was replaced by Michy Batshuayi at the interval.

Lampard said Abraham was in the team’s dressing room despite reports the player had been taken to hospital.

But the manager was unsure of the extent of the injury at this stage.

“The word at half-time was that it looked quite severe – a bang on the hip. A strong bang,” said Lampard.

“And then the word after the game was that it might not be as severe as we first thought. That’s as much detail as I can give.”