By MARK IRWIN
RAFA BENITEZ has been moaning about the lack of depth in his flagging squad.
But the Chelsea boss has, incredibly, ruled out recalling any of the £80million worth of talent out on loan.
The Blues have 23 PLAYERS currently plying their trade at other clubs, including senior international stars such as Michael Essien, Romelu Lukaku, Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne.
But Benitez said: “It is difficult for us because we play a game every three days. I don’t know if we will get anyone in the transfer window. We’ve had conversations and now it depends on the club.
“We cannot bring back some of the players who are out on loan because we have an agreement that they will carry on for the rest of the season.
“The squad would be fine if we had everyone available. Hopefully the injured players will come back and the African Nations Cup will give us our players back sooner rather than later.
“Then we’ll have to manage the squad to deal with this congestion.”
But after 40 matches this term, Gary Cahill admits the players are on their last legs.
The defender, 27, said: “There are so many games, it feels like we’re just recovering for one day then we’re playing again.” Now Sunday’s FA Cup draw at Brentford has added yet another game to their packed schedule.
And in a fortnight’s time they will compete in their EIGHTH competition of the season when they begin their Europa League campaign against Sparta Prague.
After completing a gruelling 19 games in just two months under Benitez, Cahill admits fatigue was a definite factor in the 2-2 draw at League One side Brentford.
The England ace added: “We haven’t got enough time to do our recovery work and sometimes we feel leggy, which was definitely the case in the first half at Brentford.
“It would be easy to blame the pitch but the truth is that we were just off the pace and really sloppy.
“We had to dig deep to grind out a draw. It wasn’t the result we wanted and it’s not ideal we’ve got another game but that’s the way it is.
“The character we showed in the second half shows we are playing for the manager.
“He is under a lot of pressure from the fans, but we grafted out a result on a horrible day, in horrible conditions and now we just have to do the job in the replay.”
