Chelseavs.Burnley

Pochettino has had to deal with a wave of injury issues throughout the campaign, rarely being blessed with a full array of options for any one game.

The Blues were dealt a further blow on Wednesday afternoon as they announced that Romeo Lavia would remain sidelined for the remainder of the campaign.

With the Belgium international having only played 32 minutes all season, that development was not necessarily a blow in the short term, but that is not the case with regards to a number of other players.

Carney Chukwumeka's side withdrawal from England Under-21s duty suggested that he was always going to be struggling to make the showdown with the Clarets.

Prior to Pochettino's press conference on Thursday, Chelsea included the playmaker's name on their injury update, and goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and defender Trevoh Chalobah were also fresh additions to the list.

While Sanchez would not have been expected to start ahead of Djordje Petrovic, Chalobah would have been in line to feature in central defence, and all three of the aforementioned players are said to be "undergoing rehabilitation programme".

Ben Chilwell and Enzo Fernandez do not feature on the list, yet Pochettino revealed less than a hour after the club's official injury update that the pair are considerable doubts for Saturday's encounter.

The Argentine told reporters: "We still need to assess a few players like Chilwell after playing two games. I think he got a knock in his knee.

"Today, he wasn't ready to train. We will see what will happen tomorrow if he can be in the squad. Enzo has still not arrived."

Chilwell played a total of 157 minutes for England against Brazil and Belgium, while Fernandez featured for 82 minutes during the early hours of Wednesday morning as Argentina played Costa Rica on the West coast of the United States.

On the left-back, Pochettino added: "He started two games. Yeah, maybe, it's a surprise for us. But it's bad luck because he got a dead leg in the last moment of the game against Belgium."

Levi Colwill remained on the injury update and appears to have been ruled out for a third game in a row, but Pochettino delivered a positive update on Cole Palmer who did not play any minutes for England.

Pochettino said: "He's a little bit disappointed because he cannot play or perform with the national team. The first game he had a small problem and I think he thought he could play against Belgium but he didn't play.

"Now he is okay and training well. Still one more training session tomorrow but if he responds tomorrow in the same way, he will be available on Saturday."

Chelsea head into the fixture sitting in 11th position in the Premier League standings, five points adrift of seventh-placed West Ham United.