Chelsea boosted as Luiz and Cahill start training

COBHAM, England (Reuters) -- Chelsea central defenders David Luiz and Gary Cahill are hopeful they will be fit for Saturday's Champions League final against Bayern Munich after completing their first training session following hamstring injuries.

"I'm so happy that I come back to training today," Luiz told reporters after playing a full part on Tuesday. "I did 100 percent at the session and I'm so happy for this."

Cahill added: "There's some work to be done in two or three days now leading up to the game for me to get back into it.

"If I need to do a little bit of other training, I'll do that. But, touch wood, there's no reaction from today. I felt fine out there," he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Luiz has not played for a month while England international Cahill has missed the last five games with a similar injury.

Chelsea's caretaker manager Roberto Di Matteo is hoping to avoid what he described on Tuesday as the "worst-case scenario" with reserves and youngsters on the bench for the Champions League final against Bayern Munich on Saturday.

Di Matteo, whose future at Chelsea is far from certain, said he faced one of the biggest challenges of his career especially as his team travel to Bayern's Allianz Arena have four players suspended and three senior men battling through injuries.

Captain John Terry, defender Branislav Ivanovic and midfielders Raul Meireles and Ramires are all banned from the final while Di Matteo said Florent Malouda was "touch and go".

Like Luiz and Cahill, the french international is struggling after pulling a hamstring during the first half of Sunday's final Premier League home win over Blackburn Rovers.

Di Matteo told a packed marquee at Chelsea's training ground in Cobham, south of London: "Flo (Malouda), we'll still assess and it's going to be touch and go for him to be available for Saturday."

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