Mauricio Pochettino admits Chelsea star will not be fit to face Manchester United

Manchester United will welcome Chelsea to Old Trafford tomorrow evening as both sides aim to kickstart their campaigns.

The Reds are five points ahead of Chelsea going into the game but will be hoping to restore their eight-point advantage after the two sides experienced contrasting games last weekend.

Erik ten Hag’s men were comfortably dealt with by Newcastle at St. James Park, whilst Chelsea shocked the Premier League by beating Brighton despite being down to 10 men for the majority of the game.

Chelsea have invested heavily in squad personnel since Todd Boehly acquired the club in 2022 and the first-team core is unrecognizable compared to when the American owner joined the club.

A host of marquee signings have been made since then and Cristopher Nkunku, the former Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig star, was one of the standout arrivals.

Nkunku is yet to make his Premier League debut for the London club but earlier on Tuesday, there were reports that he could be in line to make the matchday squad after a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Those suggestions have now been dismissed by manager Mauricio Pochettino, with the Argentine admitting in his pre-match conference that the game comes too soon for the Frenchman.

“Tomorrow is still too soon,” he is quoted as saying by the official Chelsea website.

“We hope [Nkunku will be available] soon. It’s about assessing injured players day by day.

“Sometimes, we become excited when we see players on the pitch, as we want to have them as soon as possible. But we need to be careful and, of course, when he is ready he will be with the squad.”

Ten Hag is also waiting for the medical green light for some players of his own, with Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez among those to still be on the sidelines.

Mason Mount could face his former club for the first time since making a controversial summer move to United over the summer but there are also question marks over his fitness.

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