BEN CHILWELL has been offered a dramatic pathway back into the fold at Chelsea after being named in their Premier League squad.
The £50 million defender was one of the infamous ‘bomb squad’ of unwanted stars banished to train away from the rest of the first team squad by hardline head coach Enzo Maresca during the transfer window.
But after failing to find a new club for the one-time England left back, Chilwell has now been included on the 25-man list of players for top flight games this season in a surprise U-turn.
Chilwell’s last appearance for Chelsea was as a two minute sub appearance in the FA Cup semi final defeat to Manchester City back in April.
He then became one of 13 big name players forced to work alone when the club’s summer spending spree took the size of the squad to 42 players at one point.
Chelsea managed to offload many of those stars in a frantic finish to the latest transfer window – Raheem Sterling joined Arsenal, Trevoh Chalobah is on loan at Crystal Palace and keeper Kepa Arribalaga joined Bournemouth on loan too.
No deals could be done for Chilwell and he will now remain at Chelsea until January at the earliest.
His long term place at Stamford Bridge looks shaky with Marc Cucurella and Levi Colwill ahead of him in the pecking order at left back.
But there is a chance he could yet earn a reprieve and stay despite being told he had no future just a few weeks ago.
Coach 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.
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“He is probably going to be back with us in a training session, we will see, because right now he is not training with us.
“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.”
Chelsea submitted their Premier League squad list today.
The club took the bold step of leaving forward Cole Palmer out of the first stage of the Conference League this season to manage his workload.
Maresca insists Chilwell’s spirits are high despite the uncertainty surrounding him at present.
Maresca said: “He is good. He is not training with us but I saw him this morning. He is okay.”
