Conte has Morata back but fears more injuries for his ‘thin’ squad

ANTONIO CONTE has confirmed that Alvaro Morata is ready to return tonight but says some of his other players are running the risk of injury. Morata trained yesterday after recovering from a hamstring injury and FIT AGAIN: Morata is set to figure tonight after hamstring injury Conte believes he will not be gambling with the Spain striker’s fitness if he starts against Roma in the Champions League.

But the Chelsea manager claims his squad does not have enough depth to cope with playing so many matches this season and that some of his other key players are in danger of breaking down.

“In this moment, we are thin and we have to play always the same players,” said Conte.

“Honestly, there is this type of risk to have other injuries. I hope not. But the best way, now is for us to follow and go game by game, then to decide every game which is the best formation and sometimes to take risks or not about our players.”

Morata was injured against Manchester City at the end of September but fears he could miss more than four weeks have proved unfounded.

And Conte said: “I could have taken a risk on Saturday and forced him to play against Crystal Palace but I’m not so stupid.

“The situation is very difficult. You have to make the best decision and, for sure, against Roma I’m not taking a risk if I decide Morata can play. He is in contention. He has been training with us.”

Chelsea will be without injured pair N’Golo Kante and Victor

Moses for the game, however, and Conte fears Marcos Alonso is one of several other players also at risk because of over-use.

“The problem is we are playing always the same players – and also we have players in our team who are not used to playing three games in a week,” said Conte. “It is the first time for Kante, for Moses. For Morata, it’s the first time to play regularly for his team.

“For Alonso it’s the same. When you have a lot of games, you need to rotate players. If this is not possible, I have to take risks. But if I hadn’t put Morata in the starting XI against Manchester City, you’d have told me I’m crazy. Sometimes the players need to rest instead.”

Chelsea return to Champions League action for the first time since their impressive win over Atletico Madrid in Spain.

That was hailed as one of the best performances by an English team in Europe for several years and it left them sitting pretty with a two-point lead over Roma at the top of Group C.

But since then the Blues have lost back-toback games against Manchester City and Crystal Palace.

And Alonso believes they cannot afford any more defeats in the Premier League with City already nine points ahead of them at the top of the table.

He said: “We have lost a lot of points already. We cannot lose any more games. We have two important games now.

“We will focus now on the Champions League and then have time to get ready for Watford and the Premier League.”