Ben Chilwell is still training separately to Chelsea’s first team but the England international has been given hope of a way back after Enzo Maresca sanctioned his inclusion in the squad submitted by the club to the Premier League on Friday.
Maresca plans to hold a meeting with the 27-year-old to discuss a solution so he does not spend the next four months in the footballing wilderness.
One of the options on the table is allowing him to rejoin the first team until January when they could look for a potential buyer all over again.
Maresca had previously said that those training separately would not be used under him, with Chilwell excluded from the Conference League squad submitted by Chelsea to UEFA last week.
That means he cannot be used in any of the club’s next six fixtures in the European competition.
Ben Chilwell has been included in Chelsea’s 25-man squad for the Premier League campaign
The defender had been exiled by new Blues manager Enzo Maresca, training away from the first team
He had hoped to at least be included in the squad for the Conference League, but missed out
Yet in a summer when Chelsea managed to secure moves for Raheem Sterling and Trevoh Chalobah, their failure to find Chilwell a new club has complicated his situation. He trained on his own at Cobham on Friday, but by naming him in their Premier League squad, Chilwell could play if they encounter an injury crisis.
Asked at his Friday press conference about Chilwell ahead of their Saturday trip to Bournemouth, Maresca said: ‘Ben is now probably the only one that is still here. We are going to sit with him and find a solution because he is the only one.
‘The reason why he is training apart is because the idea was for him to leave but because he didn’t find a solution, he is probably going to start to train with us. If we decide that, he is going to be one of the players.’