Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left out of the Chelsea squad entirely against Manchester City - after the Blues were encouraged to sell him.
Aubameyang featured in Thursday's defeat to Manchester City, coming on for Raheem Sterling before being substituted himself 22 minutes from time. Boss Graham Potter insisted there was no problem between himself and the striker following the defeat.
But Aubameyang was left out of the squad entirely for the trip to City in third round of the FA Cup. The striker did not even feature on the bench for the Blues, with Kai Havertz starting up-front.
New signing David Fofana was handed an immediate place as a substitute, despite his arrival only being confirmed on Saturday. Aubameyang's absence comes despite an attacking injury crisis hitting Potter's squad and there was no explanation offered pre-match.
Sterling and Christian Pulisic were both injured against City, leaving Potter light on options. Youngsters Lewis Hall and Bashir Humphreys both started at the Etihad Stadium, with Potter making no mention of Aubameyang before the game. However, he later revealed Aubameyang had a back injury which saw him left out.
"To a certain extent yeah, obviously from the last match we lose Raheem and Christian and then because of Thiago, Azpi, Denis, with the World Cup and where they're at in their careers, the game came too soon for them to start," he told BBC Sport.
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"Hopefully they'll help us at the back end of the game. It's just a balancing act at the moment. But we feel we've got a team who can compete and try to go through to the next round.
"Lewis has played here, he played here in the Carabao Cup and did really well. He's been training with us for a while, same as Bash. The opportunity came up for them to play and they won't let us down, it's exciting to see them play."
Potter's decision to axe Aubameyang from the squad comes after the Chelsea boss was told he would be "better off without" the striker by managerial legend Neil Warnock.
“I just think with him sometimes, you get players like that and you are better off without them. They're short of strikers but it's one of those things. Young manager, he's not been in the game all that long Graham," Warnock told talkSPORT.
"People like him, I mean they are after themselves really, they look after themselves as players and they’ll throw the manager under the bus rather than take any blame. It's one of them things, he just has to get on with him and deal with it.
“It’s similar to what’s happened with Ronaldo at Man United. I said in pre-season they should let him go quickly because he's going to upset everything else. That's no disrespect to how he was as a player, it's just personality wise.
"I don’t think he’ll (Aubameyang) ever change; you know from Arsenal to Chelsea, now he looks the same type of player. On his day, as good as you’ll see, but his days are few and far between.”
