Mauricio Pochettino confirms £50m Chelsea player could miss Newcastle game on Monday

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Chelsea boss has confirmed that one of his key players could be missing for Monday night’s fixture against Newcastle United.

The Magpies travel down to the capital as they look to make it Premier League two wins in a row for the first time since early December when Newcastle beat both Man United and Monday’s opponents consecutively.

Speaking in his press conference ahead of the game, Pochettino stated that Conor Gallagher had not trained for the last three days because of a virus and there is a chance he could miss the game.

Newcastle target will be missing for Chelsea

Newcastle have been tracking Gallagher now for a number of months with Eddie Howe previously hoping he could add the England international to his squad at the beginning of the season.

However, the Chelsea academy graduate was very keen to stay and fight for his place at his boyhood club, even despite the rumours that the owners had placed him on the transfer list.

Despite all the rumours surrounding his future and the additions of Enzo Fernandes and Moises Caicedo for a combined fee of around £225m, Gallagher has actually been one of Chelsea’s most important players.

Now, there looks like there’s a good chance the £50m star could be missing for Pochettino’s Chelsea who will be hoping to make up some ground against Newcastle in the race for Europe.

Newcastle handed huge midfield boost

Newcastle were given a huge boost to their midfield in the last couple of weeks as they saw the return of Joe Willock who has really struggled with injuries so far this season.

His energy and drive against Wolves was hugely important to picking up a big three points and it showed just how much they had been missing him in their recent games in which the midfield has struggled.

Willock’s return coinciding with Gallagher possibly being ruled out swings things hugely in Newcastle favour who will feel far more confident in not having to face the 24-year-old who put in a man-of-the-match performance in the Carabao Cup game in December.

Newcastle will now be hoping to seek revenge on that result which saw them exit the cup on penalties and make sure that they take six points off of Chelsea in the league this season.