Zola doubtful for Chelsea Cup game
Chelsea’s Italian star Gianfranco Zola could miss Sunday’s FA Cup fifth round tie at Stoke – just hours after becoming a father for the third time.
Zola, whose wife Franca gave birth to a 7lbs boy Samuele, in the early hours of this morning, was training alone at the club’s Heathrow headquarters this afternoon in a bid to recover from a thigh injury sustained in last week’s 3-1 Premiership win over Birmingham City.
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who scored from a penalty as a second-half substitute at St Andrews, is standing by to replace Zola against the First Division strugglers having proved his recovery from an ankle injury.
Full-back Albert Ferrer is still out injured and Mario Stanic is needs to test a knee problem that has sidelined him for a month, but otherwise manager Claudio Ranieri has a full squad from which to select his side.
PROBABLE SQUAD: Cudicini; Terry, Desailly, Gallas, Melchiot, Lampard, Petit, Le Saux, Morris, Gronkjaer, Zola, Gudjohnsen, Hasselbaink, de Lucas, Cole, Stanic, Zenden, de Goey.
