European Super Cup, Chelsea Vs Villarreal: Yellow Submarine Rocked By Injury

JAKARTA - Villarreal have arrived in Belfast, Northern Ireland where the UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea will be held on Wednesday night. A second major trophy awaits for the Yellow Submarine squad, having broken their long wait with Europa League success last season.

However, Unai Emery's men were not helped by an injury crisis during pre-season which, at one point, saw them lose 12 players testing positive for coronavirus and getting injured.

And ahead of the final on Wednesday night, they remain without a number of players. This is certainly a big task for Emery against Thomas Tuchel's troops.

According to Football Espana, key midfielder Dani Parejo remains sidelined through injury, as does the other midfield option in Francis Coquelin. Though, there is good news in midfield with the possible return of Vicente Iborra and Etienne Capoue from their injuries. Both players returned to training on Monday ahead of yesterday's trip.

Meanwhile, Juan Foyth, who starred at right-back towards the end of last season but had to fill in the defensive midfield position during pre-season, picked up an injury late in Monday's session.

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The hero of the Europa League final, Geronimo Rulli, is also absent, and will be replaced by Sergio Asenjo. Meanwhile winger Samu Chukwueze is continuing his rehabilitation after a muscle injury.

With those injuries, midfield could be a big problem for Villarreal, especially against N'Golo Kante and Jorginho. However, there were reinforcements in the attack.

New signing Boulaye Dia is likely to be available after recovering from injury, as is Paco Alcacer, who returned to the team last week.

The two players look set to join a recovered Moi Gomez to compete for a starting position up front alongside star striker Gerard Moreno, who signed a new six-year contract with the club on Monday.

And Pau Torres will continue his long season playing in the final just days after the Olympic final in Tokyo.

Whereas, after this match, the centre-back will be given at least two weeks of rest to recover, missing the start of the La Liga season, which starts on Monday night for the Yellow Submarine.

Can Villarreal beat Chelsea?