Some of Chelsea's first team stars returned to Cobham as Graham Potter led the club's first training session on Tuesday. The Blues were afforded a brief break as the bulk of the first team squad headed to the World Cup, but those remaining players were back in action.
Chelsea fly to Abu Dhabi for warm weather training on Sunday ahead of a friendly against Aston Villa on December 11th. The Premier League sides will compete for the CBF | Al Wahda Challenge Cup on Sunday December 11th, at the unusual kick-off time of 2.10pm.
With 12 players still involved at the World Cup, Potter's training numbers were buoyed by Chelsea's development squad. Following an impressive 4-2 win over Peterborough United in the Papa John's Trophy, the youngsters have a pause of their own until taking on Cheltenham later in December in the third round of the competition.
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Marc Cucurella, Trevoh Chalobah, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Jorginho, Lewis Hall and Armando Broja were all pictured in the session by Chelsea's official media, with the latter player providing a particular boost given an ankle injury he picked up on international duty for Albania. Hall could be seen preparing with the first team stars following his involvement against Manchester City and Newcastle with Ben Chilwell's continued absence.
Chelsea's injury list from before the break appears to still be in tact however. None of Wesley Fofana, Reece James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Carney Chukwuemeka, Kepa Arrizabalaga or Chilwell featured in images released by the club. However, Chilwell appears to have made progress but posted a video of him swimming on Tuesday on his Instagram Story. Fofana and James have both trained on grass during the break but it appears too soon for any stars to complete a full session as it stands.
That means the development squad made up the numbers with Charlie Webster, Cesare Casadei, Omari Hutchinson, Bashir Humphreys, Josh Brooking, Malik Mothersille, Ben Elliott, Derrick Abu, Dylan Williams and Zak Sturge all pictured. It appears the fit members of that squad were all involved however, with those injured or competing for the Under-18s missing out.
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