Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri claims he will consider Callum Hudson-Odoi for Sunday's EFL Cup final clash with Manchester City after the academy graduate impressed on Europa League duty.
The 18-year-old featured for 90 minutes against Swedish side Malmo on Thursday night, capping a rare start by scoring the final goal in a 3-0 second-leg victory at Stamford Bridge that saw the Blues - 5-1 winners on aggregate - book a place in the last 16 of Europe's secondary club competition.
Speaking after his side's initially lacklustre display that improved markedly after the break, Sarri praised Hudson-Odoi's performance and suggested that he - along with defenders Andreas Christensen and Emerson Palmieri - would come into his thinking ahead of that looming Wembley showdown.
"I think that we need to see the situation (on) Saturday, we spent this match so we need to see the recovery," he told BT Sport.
"Callum played really a very good match but also Christensen and Emerson Palmieri so we have to consider them of course."
When asked if he thought he had staked a cup final claim against Malmo, Hudson-Odoi said: "I feel like today was a good performance for the team and hopefully that I did well and had an impact on the game as well."
On the win, he said: "I'm happy with the result today. I think all the boys really worked hard, we played really well throughout the game.
"I think our mentality was strong obviously and as Oli (Giroud) said, we knew they were going to come out fast so we paced ourselves throughout and I think that we deserved the win that we got today.
"I'm happy with the goal, it's a bonus for the work that the team did today."
