Chelsea prepared for Wednesday’s final Champions League
group game against Sporting Lisbon without John Terry,
Willian and Eden Hazard, but with José Mourinho expected
to offer the teenage midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek his
first taste of senior competitive football.
The England Under-19 international, consistently excellent
for Chelsea’s youth teams since joining the club at under-
eight level, trained with the senior squad at Cobham on
Tuesday morning alongside fellow youngsters Nathan Aké and
the third-choice goalkeeper in European competition,
Mitchell Beeney.
Mourinho said it was important for the club to develop
young talent. “Every manager in the world wants to bring
young people up,” he said.
“Go to other clubs and you see it’s not easy to bring kids
through from youth competitions to the top level.
“If you don’t bring kids through the academy then the best
thing is to close the academy. It’s better to close the
door and use the money to buy the players.
“The relation between first team and the academy is
changing. The first time Ruben trained with me is 18 months
ago. The last two to three weeks he is training every day.
Tomorrow is Ruben’s day, but it’s also academy day.”
Loftus-Cheek, a highly rated midfielder who had featured
for the senior side in two friendlies on their post-season
tour of the United States in May 2013, was a regular in
the club’s under-21s last term and captained the team to
their FA Youth Cup success.
“I’ve been at the club since I was eight so to be involved
and training with the first team means a lot to me,” he
said.
Neither Dominic Solanke – who made his debut in this
competition against Maribor earlier in the section – nor
Lewis Baker was involved as Mourinho oversaw training. Of
the regular senior squad, Terry, Willian and Hazard all sat
out the session with the manager expected to rest them for
the fixture given his team have already won Group G.
Cesc Fàbregas, who is suspended for Saturday’s visit of
Hull City in the Premier League having picked up a fifth
booking of term in the weekend loss at Newcastle, was
present with André Schürrle, Filipe Luís, Ramires and Petr
Cech also expected to play.

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E ft start or warm bench as usual