Chelsea have hinted that out of favour versatile midfielder Saul Niguez could be the one to replace N'Golo Kante or even Ben Chilwell in the starting line up for the Manchester United game with their latest social media post.
Saul, 27, hasn't had the best of starts to his Blues career with his debut against Aston Villa in the Premier League one to forget personally despite the west Londoners still coming out on top by a three goal margin.
Since that disastrous debut for the Spaniard, he has only been able to feature five more times in all competitions including off the bench in the most recent 4-0 Juventus win in the Champions League.
In that game itself, the key duo of Ben Chilwell and N'Golo Kante were forced off with respective injuries and manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed the news that not many Blues fans wanted to hear in his pre-Manchester United press conference on Friday afternoon.
He said: "Kova [Mateo Kovacic] is still out for the game on Sunday. N'Golo (Kante) twisted his knee a little bit. He feels quite better since the game but it seems like he will be out for some days. It's a matter of days, a matter of one week maybe. We still have a little bit of hope but it will be almost a miracle if he makes it, so we think about a week.
"Ben has a partial injury of his ACL and the decision is to treat it conservatively. The next six weeks will tell the story actually if he makes it and if he will be fully available or if he needs surgery after that.
He then added when quizzed about how big this blow is for the left-back himself: "There is never a good moment for big injuries or injuries in general. This for him personally is a very bad moment because he was so involved and full of confidence. He was a huge part our performances and in our victories in the last few weeks.
"We are very sad but I just spoke to him some minutes ago and he is very positive because his body reacts positively to the first treatments and the injury.
"After a while, you have to refocus and focus on the positive things which are in the next weeks to do everything possible to come back on the pitch and help us again. He will come back strong, I am sure about it."
Now, these two injuries intrinsically link to Saul due to him being able to occupy both positions that may need to be covered in the forthcoming weeks.
Obviously, the 27-year-old has more experience in the midfield position but he did start off the season covering at left-back for Diego Simeone's side.
With Ruben Loftus-Cheek more than likely to fill in for Kante on Sunday, could there be an opening elsewhere on the pitch or will Saul himself be the one to be given the chance against the Red Devils at the expense of Chelsea's current number 12?
Well, if Chelsea's recent social media post is anything to go by then we could see a shock inclusion come 3.30pm on Sunday when the line-ups are announced.
In Cobham training on Friday, the admin posted a picture of the player in question looking rather upbeat with the caption- 'Smiles with Saul [followed by a smiling face emoji].'
Has he been told something that we don't know about yet and are we going to be in for a shock when the team news is unveiled?
See how football.london's Chelsea writers would line up the team at the weekend here.
