Chelsea's stars returned to the pitches of Cobham to get back to work and prepare for Chelsea's Premier League clash with Brentford. The international break is almost over with the Blues stars starting to return from their exploits all over the globe.
Roberto Mancini allowed Jorginho to leave Italy's camp to return Thomas Tuchel's favour, and was quick to find himself back in Surrey, while the like of Andreas Christensen, Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi were all involved as they looked to return to first team action following injuries.
Tuchel already has a pretty sizeable group to work with, even with the likes of Christian Pulisic and Thiago Silva still having games to play. The former has shown good form for the USA, with his hat-trick against Panama perhaps proving a tempting insight for the German coach, despite how late he will return to the squad.
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One unexpected face in Blues training was that of technical and performance advisor, Petr Cech. The former Chelsea goalkeeper already played a crucial role in the international break in discussing James' withdrawal from the England squad, and has been an important figure alongside Marina Granovskaia in liaising with Tuchel over the direction of the club this season.
However, rather than a pristine suit he's often found in, the goalkeeping legend was in his Chelsea coaching kit at Cobham with a watchful eye on Kepa Arrizabalaga and Marcus Bettinelli. The ex-Czech Republic international watched on as Edouard Mendy's understudies had a very competitive match of foot tennis, kept the score and made some crucial umpiring calls for the pair. The 39-year-old called out: "Oh my god... in!" as he combined excited spectator and adjudicator.
Mendy on the other hand, once again found himself facing Mohamed Salah and Egypt in a crucial match. The Senegal keeper showed his ability in a penalty shootout for the second time against the North African side to add World Cup qualification to the Africa Cup of Nations title he earned in February.
Each of the first four penalties were missed as Kalidou Koulibaly hit the bar before Liverpool star Salah blazed the next penalty over, amid controversy as he was illuminated by a large number of laser pens from the crowd. Mendy stopped Mostafa Mohamed's attempt before Sadio Mane stepped up to put Senegal through as the claimed a 3-1 victory in the shootout.
