Lampard bemoans severe Chelsea injury crisis

Frank Lampard bemoaned on Friday the "worst injury" crisis among the Premier League's top sides as his Chelsea team prepared to face Everton with as many as nine frontline players unavailable.

"It hasn't been spoken about that much but we've had probably the worst injury list of certainly the top group of the table I think, lots of numbers injured, important players injured, (N'Golo) Kante, (Ruben) Loftus-Cheek and others," Lampard said.

"We started the season that way and it's happened again in the middle of the season. And we're working against that to try to get the best results."

Mateo Kovacic was out of match at Stamford Bridge with an Achilles problem while Brazil forward Willian will face a late fitness test on his own Achilles issue.

Lampard revealed Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic played in an "in-house game" at Chelsea's training ground on Friday.