Sarri to assess Loftus-Cheek ahead of Southampton game

Maurizio Sarri is considering his options ahead of Sunday’s game. [Picture: Adam Davy/PA Wire]

Maurizio Sarri says he will assess Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s fitness before deciding whether the midfielder will be involved in Sunday’s game at Southampton.

Loftus-Cheek, overlooked by Sarri and then sidelined by a shin injury, returned to action in Thursday’s Europa League win over MOL Vidi.

He played 66 minutes of the game at Stamford Bridge and will be hoping to play some part against the Saints.

But head coach Sarri said: “I have to see the recovery of the player because he has played for the first time from the beginning – he has played for the first time 65-70 minutes. So I want to see the recovery.”

Sarri again voiced concern about Chelsea’s defensive shortcomings after the narrow win.

Chelsea scraped a 1-0 victory courtesy of Alvaro Morata’s goal 20 minutes from time.

And they endured some difficult moments as the Hungarian underdogs threatened.

Sarri said: “We have conceded two or three opportunities to the opponent and I think we have to do better in the defensive phase.

“To avoid the counter-attacks of the opponents, we have to do better.”

Chelsea missed a number of chances in the first half but Sarri was more concerned with what went wrong at the other end of the pitch.

He said: “I was worried about the fact that we have conceded three goal opportunities to the opponents. I am not worried if we don’t score for 45 minutes.”