Isak, De Bruyne & Pedro: FPL injury news ahead as Chelsea and West Ham prepare to kick off GW5

With the deadline for Gameweek 5 of the new Fantasy Premier League season fast approaching, we’re back to help as always with updates on all of the biggest injury worries for the weekend.

We’ve scoured the managers’ press conferences and pored over media reports to figure out who’s likely to play and who could miss out to make sure that you can make the best possible transfer decisions before Saturday morning’s deadlines – with Alexander Isak, Kevin de Bruyne and João Pedro among the more notable players with those dreaded yellow triangles next to their names.

We’ve got the latest on all of them and more below, and if you need any more guidance our resident FPL expert and proud owner of a Top 2,000 finish from last season is also back with his latest advice column, which you can read by clicking here.

Alexander Isak

The Swedish striker is among the most popular forwards in the game but was taken off early during the eventual 2-1 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers last weekend thanks to a combination of a minor foot injury and the football grazing his eye, according to Eddie Howe. The Newcastle United head coach told reporters in his press conference that he would “make a decision today” – not that he’s likely to tell us what that decision is.

Watch the latest episode of The Premier League Panel right here as our experts look at Liverpool’s new regime.

Isak doesn’t seem to have been in full training over the week, so this is a tough one to call. By all accounts the injuries are severe, and with Callum Wilson out until at least the next international break, we’d suggest he’s likely to get at least some gametime if it’s even remotely possible, but there are no guarantees. Anthony Gordon may lead the line with Harvey Barnes starting on the left.

Kevin de Bruyne

The Belgian maestro limped out of Manchester City’s 0-0 Champions League draw with Inter Milan in midweek with a minor groin injury, but he “feels a bit better today” according to Pep Guardiola. A final decision will be taken after training tomorrow but he “could be” involved, and it seems probably that Guardiola will want him to play at least some role. Nathan Aké and Oscar Bobb remain out but City should otherwise have a clean bill of health ahead of Sunday’s showdown with Arsenal and Phil Foden is apparently “ready” to play a full 90 minutes.

João Pedro

Brighton & Hove Albion’s one-time record signing missed last weekend’s game with a knock sustained while on international duty with Brazil. Manager Fabian Hürzeler told reporters that Pedro is due back in training on Friday but will only play if he can “do all the movements”, adding that “we won’t take any risk” with him. It sounds as though Pedro will play a limited role at most.

Martin Ødegaard

Although initially reported as being a doubt and not a definite out ahead of last weekend’s North London Derby, it was announced yesterday that Arsenal’s club captain had suffered ankle ligament damage on international duty with Norway and will be sidelined “for a while”. An exact timeline for his return has not been established, but he certainly won’t play this weekend.

Alisson

Arne Slot told reporters that Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson may not be able to train today due to a minor muscular issue, adding that if he was unable to take part on Friday then he would “probably” not play on Saturday. At the time of publication, there have been no updates about whether he took part in the session, but that is information that will likely be available on social media by Saturday morning.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin & Vitalii Mykolenko

Half the Everton squad has the dreaded yellow triangle at the moment, largely due to an illness which swept through the camp, with victims including Dominic Calvert-Lewin and defender Vitalii Mykolenko, both relatively popular assets in the game. There’s good news, however, with Sean Dyche telling reporters that the former “is OK” while the latter is back in training too. Both should feature this weekend. Jarrad Branthwaite remains out, and may play for the Under-21s as he returns to full fitness.

Malo Gusto & Reece James

The French full-back has an orange triangle next to his name on the FPL app, but Enzo Maresca has confirmed he will miss out on Saturday’s early kick-off against West Ham United. No details of his return date were given, but the Chelsea head coach also confirmed that Reece James still isn’t ready to return to action.

Niclas Füllkrug

The West Ham forward isn’t it too many teams but is on a lot of watchlists given his goalscoring form in the Bundesliga last season – but it sounds as though it will be wise to wait another week before signing the German for your team. Julen Lopetegui said that a decision will be made on Friday, but sounded distinctly uncertain about the chances that he will play. A bench player, at most, we presume.