Chelsea are confident that Frank Lampard will be available to face Bolton on Monday after the club revealed that the midfielder only picked up a "minor" calf injury on Wednesday.
Lampard went for a scan after picking up the knock in training but fears that the 32-year-old would be facing another lengthy spell on the sidelines were allayed by the club on Thursday morning.
A statement on the club's website read: "Frank Lampard is suffering from a minor calf problem which will be monitored over the next few days. The midfielder, who has played every minute of our last six matches since Christmas, is expected to be available for Bolton on Monday night."
The news comes as a relief to the Barclays Premier League champions, who have had to do without Lampard for the majority of the season thanks to a hernia and groin problem that was initially expected to rule him out only for a few weeks.
The former West Ham midfielder was out for four months from August but made a successful return to the team against Tottenham in December.
The England man scored twice in Chelsea's 7-0 demolition of Ipswich in the FA Cup third round 11 days ago and has been instrumental in the slight upturn in form at the club, who now sit fourth in the league after a poor run which coincided with Lampard's absence.
Lampard spoke of his delight at returning to the Chelsea first team over the festive period.
"I tried to keep fit during the injury by doing everything I could without harming it," he told Chelsea's official website.
"I did a lot of running and got myself as fit as I could for coming back and then I just had to try to adapt to games quickly which is the toughest bit, finding the sharpness which you can never reproduce the conditions for when you are out for a while, so I was pleased to get through the tight schedule of games and I felt pretty good in most of them, maybe not so much the Wolves match because my groin felt a bit funny, but other than that I felt quite good."
Chelsea missed out on adding to their midfield ranks this week when Steven Pienaar chose to join London rivals Tottenham ahead of them in a £3million deal.
Source: PA
