Revealed: Full Chelsea squad who trained at Stamford Bridge as Mateo Kovacic returns to hand Thomas Tuchel huge fitness boost

Mateo Kovacic provided Chelsea with a welcome fitness boost on Tuesday afternoon after being involved in the open training session at Stamford Bridge.

Thomas Tuchel’s side trained away from their usual Cobham training base to head to west London ahead of their Premier League clash against Leicester City. 

Chelsea are looking to bounce back from their 3-0 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road. 

As they made their way out onto the pitch, they were given a huge boost following the return of Mateo Kovacic. He joined the rest of his teammates in the capital having not made a league appearance yet this season due to injury. 

Prior to the draw to Spurs, Tuchel confirmed he had problems with his knee and they were waiting for him to have a ‘normal reaction’ before he returned.

“Has issues with his knee, always a little bit of a reaction,” Tuchel said earlier this month. 

“We decided to take a step back and increase treatment time to reduce the stress that comes from training to have a normal reaction before we start again.”

There were several absences from training. Emerson Palmieri wasn’t there as he finalised his £15 million switch to West Ham, while Callum Hudson-Odoi was also absent for unknown reasons amid interest from several clubs due to his uncertain future. 

Armando Broja was missing due to an injury, as was N’Golo Kante who is set to miss several weeks with a hamstring problem. 

“Quite serious,” admitted Tuchel last Friday on Kante’s injury.

“We’re talking about weeks. Not good news. We are disappointed and sad because N’Golo is super important and super fit. He will be out for weeks.”

Marcos Alonso, as expected, was also not with the squad amid Barcelona interest, he is training away from the team as he tried to finalise a move away.

Full squad who trained at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday afternoon

Goalkeepers: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Edouard Mendy, Marcus Bettinelli

Defenders: Marc Cucurella, Reece James, Ben Chilwell, Trevoh Chalobah, Ethan Ampadu, Cesar Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Kalidou Koulibaly

Midfielders: Carney Chukwuemeka, Conor Gallagher, Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho

Forwards: Mason Mount, Raheem Sterling, Hakim Ziyech, Christian Pulisic, Kai Havertz

Absent: Armando Broja (injury), Callum Hudson-Odoi (unknown), N’Golo Kante (injury), Emerson Palmieri (transfer), Marcos Alonso (training away from first team squad), Billy Gilmour, Ross Barkley, Michy Batshuayi