Mauricio Pochettino is hopeful of having defenders Trevoh Chalobah and Malo Gusto in his side to face Manchester United on Thursday, but confirmed that Ben Chilwell’s recovery from injury has suffered a set-back.

Chelsea return to Premier League action on Thursday, when they host Manchester United at Stamford Bridge. Looking to secure an important three points against fellow European hopefuls, Pochettino is confident that his defensive options will be boosted slightly.

Goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and defenders Trevoh Chalobah and Ben Chilwell were all unavailable for our last match, a 2-2 draw with Burnley on Saturday, while Malo Gusto limped off with an issue late on in the game.

“Trevoh and Malo were training with us and I think they will be ready to be involved with us in the squad,” said Pochettino, adding: “We haven’t seen Chilly since Friday. That is the last time we saw him because the doctor and the medical staff removed from his knee a lot of fluid. That was the situation after he arrived from the national team and then on Saturday he got ill and wasn’t here on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and today. He is at home trying to recover.”

On Christopher Nkunku, Pochettino said: “At the moment we don’t still know when it will be possible for him to start to train with the team. At the moment he is not training with us. He hasn’t had a set-back, his recovery was longer than we expected.

“It was after the Carabao Cup final, when he played 30 or 40 minutes with a problem that we didn’t know about and only found out after the game. This type of circumstance affects in the end everything, because it’s not only him. There are too many players that suffer this season.”