MAURICIO POCHETTINO has revealed that he will have just "14 or 15" players to choose from when Chelsea face Bournemouth this weekend.
The Blues travel to the Vitality Stadium to take on Andoni Iraola's side on Sunday.
However, they have been hit with a huge injury blow.
First team stars Armando Broja, Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia were all missing from training on Friday morning.
Lavia, who joined the club in a £58million transfer from Southampton this summer, suffered an ankle injury last week.
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Reports suggest that he could be sidelined until the end of October.
Broja and Badiashile were thought to have been close to returning following their respective injuries, but they are yet to feature in training with the rest of the team.
And with Christopher Nkunku still out of action, Pochettino is struggling to fill out his matchday team sheet.
Speaking on Friday, the Chelsea boss said: "With the circumstances, of course, I think it is better for us because we have 11 or 12 players injured.
"And I think it shows with the squad at the moment. I think we only have 14 or 15 players. I think it's important that we can recover the players and be competitive.
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"Of course with the history of Chelsea, we need to be involved in European competition but that is not in my hands now, that is the reality.
"In our hands now is to work and to try and be in there next season. For sure we are going to be in European competition next season."
Pochettino will likely have to call upon some of the club's youth stars to fill his squad for Sunday despite Chelsea spending over £1BILLION in the last year.
