Team news ahead of Forest - Richarlison back in training and available

Richarlison is back in training and available for our Carabao Cup third round tie against Nottingham Forest at The City Ground on Wednesday evening (7.45pm).

Laid low by a calf problem sustained against Everton on 15 October, Richarlison returned to full training with the squad on Monday, and was later named in the Brazil squad for the World Cup.

Previewing the match with SPURPLAY, Antonio Conte’s assistant Cristian Stellini explained that Antonio will make a decision on the striker’s participation at Forest tomorrow.

Cristian told us: “Richarlison started training with the team yesterday. For us, it’s great news, because we’ve missed Richarlison, like we’ve missed Kulusevski and everyone we’ve missed in this last month.

“He’s only just started to train with us, we can use him, but we have to be careful, and we work day by day to take the right decision.”

Asked if he was available for Forest, Cristian said: “Yes, he’s available for Forest, for sure, but if we have to take a risk, we don’t have to do it, so we manage players who are recovering from injury day by day, and Antonio will take the decision tomorrow for the squad.

“It’s not only Richarlison or Kulusevski, but also, we’ve played 11 matches (since 1 October) and many players maybe have a small problem or fatigue to recover, so Antonio will take the decision tomorrow.

“Kulusevski came back in the last match and has been an important player for us for a long time. We are really happy to use him again. He’s an important player, like all the players we have, because in this type of schedule, full of matches, all the players are important.”

Asked about Deki and Richy in his pre-match press conference, Cristian reported: “Richarlison is back in training from yesterday. We’re very happy to see him again with us. He’s available but thinking that he’s only has two days training with the team. We lost Dejan Kulusevski from the last international break, a long time, so we cannot say that he can play 90 minutes, because he was injured for a long time, so we have to be careful with this type of injury.”