Frank Lampard has delivered an injury update on Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger.
The German missed the start of the season due to the knee problem sustained in the Blues' 1-1 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford towards the end of the 2018/2019 campaign.
Th was the injury which also caused him to sit out the Europa League final win over Arsenal.
Rudiger did return to training ahead of the opening game of the season - ironically against the Red Devils away from home - but Lampard didn't rush the defender back.
Instead he featured in a couple of Under-23 matches before making a return to the first-team action after the first international break of the campaign against Wolves.
Whilst the Blues did record an impressive 5-2 win at Molineux Stadium, the win was somewhat marred with Rudiger having to be replaced at half-time.
Subsequently Rudiger missed games against Valencia, Liverpool, Grimsby, Brighton, Lille as well as Southampton and is set to miss Saturday's clash against Newcastle United.
However, it shouldn't be too long before Lampard has the defender available again.
"Rudiger is training outside with the physios, which is a progression for him," Lampard told reporters. "He has had a tough injury, stop-start which has been tough for everybody.
"But he is outside, which is positive.
"A bit of work for him to be done for match fitness, but it is positive for us that he is outside."
Whilst that is good news regarding Rudiger, Lampard has suffered a double injury blow ahead of Newcastle's visit with N'Golo Kante and Andreas Christensen ruled out.
"No, N'Golo's not fit, he had a small groin issue in the warm-up to the first international game for France," Lampard added.
"We didn't get him back until after the second game and he's not fit for Saturday.
"Kovacic had a knock on his thigh but has trained the last couple of days, so is in contention. Ross is fine. Andreas has a hamstring injury that will probably see him out for the next two weeks.
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