Rüdiger and Musonda Join Chelsea Training as Cristián Cuevas Replaces Kenedy

A few bits of good news from Chelsea training over in Singapore from Wednesday, as the traveling squad were bolstered by one new player, one semi-new player, and the full return of Charly Musonda Jr from injury.

Musonda had been limited to individual fitness training so far this pre-season after a rather untimely injury kept him out of all three friendlies, but he’s been working himself to his limit and it looks like it’s now paid off as he was spotted training with the rest of the team on Wednesday. Earlier, the Evening Standard’s Simon Johnson shared a photo of just how much effort young Charly Jr had been putting in.

Joining Musonda and the rest of the squad are two new arrivals, Antonio Rüdiger and, wait for it, Cristián Cuevas.

No, I’m not making that up. Cristián “future expert-level trivia answer” Cuevas has joined the Chelsea pre-season tour, presumably because he was the only (fit) player at Cobham these days (with Baba Rahman not expected back until October at the earliest) who could ostensibly be classed as a left wing-back.

In case you’re like everyone else and don’t know what Cuevas looks like, he’s the dude in the red shoes. The 22-year-old Chile youth international had spent the last two seasons out on loan at Belgian club STVV, who were relegated last summer from the Jupiler League to the second division.

Since Kenedy’s dismissal from camp (and Pedro’s return to London due to injury), Chelsea had been operating with just one left wing-back in the squad. When Marcos Alonso had exhausted all his reserves of energy halfway through the second half against Bayern Munich on Tuesday, it was Victor Moses who had to fill in on the opposite flank, to mixed reviews.

Could we see some pre-season action for Cuevas on Saturday against Inter? I’d say that’s a fairly likely possibility. Hopefully both Musonda and Rüdiger will get a run-out as well.

Credit: weaintgotnohistory

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