Chelsea are sweating over the fitness of Mason Mount ahead of the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
The England playmaker - who served a suspension in the second leg of their last-16 tie against Borussia Dortmund - has suffered a recurrence of an abdominal issue and missed the weekend's Premier League loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Mount has flown to the Spanish capital alongside Thiago Silva, but whether either man is risked from the off remains to be seen, while Cesar Azpilicueta (head) and Armando Broja (knee) are confined to the infirmary.
Edouard Mendy has now made a full recovery from a fractured finger, but Kepa Arrizabalaga remains the Blues' number one for now, while Reece James and Ben Chilwell should be given the nod by Frank Lampard in the full-back areas.
Marc Cucurella will surely make way for Chilwell, and with Benoit Badiashile ineligible for the Champions League knockout rounds, Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly should resume their partnership in the heart of defence.
N'Golo Kante - who has just recovered from a serious hamstring injury - was rested at the weekend in anticipation for this game, and the Frenchman could take the place of Conor Gallagher as Enzo Fernandez and ex-Real Madrid man Mateo Kovacic continue in the engine room.
None of Noni Madueke, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang or David Datro Fofana were selected for the knockout rounds either, so it may be as you were up front with Raheem Sterling, Joao Felix and Kai Havertz forming the attacking trident, in spite of Mykhaylo Mudryk's eye-catching group-stage exploits for Shakhtar Donetsk.
Chelsea possible starting lineup: Kepa; James, Fofana, Koulibaly, Chilwell; Kovacic, Fernandez, Kante; Sterling, Havertz, Felix
> Click here to see how Real Madrid could line up for the first leg
Ben Knapton
