Antonio Rudiger has been named in Frank Lampard’s starting line-up for the decisive Champions League Group H game against Lille, with Jorginho and Emerson also returning to the XI at Stamford Bridge.
Andreas Christensen, Mason Mount and Reece James have dropped out of the team that were outfought in the 3-1 defeat away to Everton on Saturday.
Rudiger, the Germany centre back, has played just 45 minutes all season. Having recovered from a knee injury, he started the win away to Wolves but slipped when jogging to the dressing rooms at half-time and hurt his pelvis.
He has been in training for several weeks but Lampard wanted to ease his best defender back into action having been out for so long.
However, with Fikayo Tomori injured and Andreas Christensen poor in his past couple of appearances the head coach decided this crunch clash was the best time for him to come back.
The Blues must win to guarantee their progress to the round of 16, although a draw will be enough if Ajax defeat Valencia in Amsterdam.
They have picked up just one point from their two previous home games in the group - losing 1-0 in the opening game at home to Valencia, while coming back to draw 4-4 against nine-man Ajax.
"I know there’s expectations we should get through the group, I get that, but it was a tough group." Lampard said yesterday at his pre-match press conference. "And the slightly young feel to our team.
"The fact we lost our first game [1-0 at home to Valencia], there’s a few difficulties we’ve had, and I think we’ve dealt with them very well to get ourselves in this position. But there’s still work to be done."
Kick-off is 8pm and you can follow all the action in our live blog .
Chelsea: Kepa, Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Kurt Zouma, Emerson; N'Golo Kante, Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic; Willian, Tammy Abraham, Christian Pulisic.
