Chelsea have named Ben Chilwell in their Premier League squad despite the England defender being deemed surplus to requirements over the summer. He was one of several players frozen out by Enzo Maresca after he took over from Mauricio Pochettino.
Chilwell was told that he would struggle for minutes at Chelsea this season, paving the way for him to leave the club in the summer. The Blues desperately tried to offload him before the deadline, with a permanent exit failing to materialise before a loan move to Turkey fell through.
However, it seems Maresca has revised his stance on Chilwell after including him in Chelsea’s squad for their Premier League campaign. He was one of the 25 names on the list that was released on Friday, meaning there is a chance he could work his way back into the fold.
Chilwell has been training away from Chelsea’s first-team group in recent weeks but Maresca opened the door to his return in a press conference just hours before the squad list was announced.
“Ben now is the only one [of the exiled group] still here, so probably now we’ll sit with him and find a solution,” said the Chelsea boss. “Probably, he’s going to be back with us in training sessions. At the moment he’s not training with us.
“The reason he is training apart is because the idea was for him to leave, but because we didn’t find any solution he’s here and probably he’s going to start to train with us. We need to decide that. If we decide that, he will be one of our players.”
Asked what frame of mind Chilwell was in after being frozen out of the senior squad, Maresca replied: “He is good. He is not training with us but I saw him this morning. He is okay.”
Chilwell made just nine Premier League starts for Chelsea last season with hamstring and knee injuries disrupting his campaign. As a result, he was omitted from the England squad that played at Euro 2024 with Gareth Southgate selecting Luke Shaw as the only recognised left-back.
The 27-year-old has not featured for Chelsea at all this season and was left out of their squad for the Conference League earlier this month. It remains to be seen if he will be involved in some capacity when the Blues travel to Bournemouth on Saturday evening.
