Moises Caicedo starts on the bench for Chelsea of their Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest.
The Ecuador international has been in stunning form this season, scoring a sensational long range strike within the victory over Liverpool prior to the international break.
However the Ecuador international is barely deemed fit enough for the bench this afternoon with Andrey Santos and Romeo Lavia starting in midfield on the City Ground.
Enzo Fernandez meanwhile misses out altogether after picking up a knee issue while on international duty with Argentina.
Pedro Neto does start despite doubts over his availability this week.
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Chelsea haven’t won a Premier League game without Caicedo within the starting XI since he signed for the club from Brighton in 2023.
Caicedo was amongst three players not to coach on Friday with Maresca explaining in his pre-match press conference: ‘They [Caicedo, Fernandez and Neto] didn’t participate within the session yesterday, but we’ll see in the event that they can train today.
Otherwise, they’d be out for tomorrow.’
Having not trained on Friday, Caicedo has only been deemed fit enough for the bench..
Speaking ahead of kick-off, Maresca played down the severity of the knock keeping Fernandez out of the side and hopes to have him available again ‘very soon’.
‘No, it isn’t an enormous concern,’ Maresca told TNT Sports. ‘Hopefully he might be back very soon.
‘It’s not nearly Enzo and Moi. We’d like to try to find a special solution. We’re going to try to seek out an answer.’
Estevao Willian, who scored the dramatic late winner over Liverpool, is one other only fit enough for the bench after his excursions with Brazil through the international break.
‘He has already began games for us. He got here back from a protracted trip from Brazil so we’d like to administer it,’ Maresca said.
‘Now we have six or seven games until the subsequent break. Obviously he’s going to play but he already showed he can play from the beginning.’
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