Former Chelsea goalkeeper Rob Green has described how Callum Hudson-Odoi was so good in training that Blues defender Cesar Azpilicueta could not live with him.
The 18-year-old has impressed since bursting on the scene at Chelsea, with the teenager making his debut against Newcastle United in the FA Cup in January 2018.
Hudson-Odoi has scored six goals in his 32 games for the Blues, although his season was cut short in April after he sustained an Achilles tendon injury, having scored five times in 26 games.
But his former team-mate has suggested that Hudson-Odoi should have played even more, with the teenager in and out of the team during Maurizio Sarri's time in charge.
“We had Willian, Pedro and obviously Eden [Hazard] in the same positions, but the manager had such a strong belief in playing the players he trusted," Green told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“It was the same team, the same formation every week, maybe the odd change, but Callum [Hudson-Odoi] wasn’t getting a look-in.
“The real issue was Maurizio Sarri just wouldn’t play these players. Even the fans saw it in the odd snippets when he was coming on, or playing for the England U21 side, and he made his debut for the senior England team before he made his league debut at Chelsea, that was the crazy thing."
Meanwhile, Green shared just how good Hudson-Odoi was in training, even around more experienced players within the Chelsea squad.
“We would go into training and he would tear it up, day in day out. It was the things he would try in training when there was no pressure, and he would do it in games, because he just wanted to," he said.
“He could just play with freedom in the knowledge that he is good enough to pull it off, even against some of the best defenders in the world.
“Cesar Azpilicueta, playing up against him, couldn’t live with him. He’d chop inside him and Azpi would turn around and go ‘Oh, he’s gone past me’, and then he would bend one in the top corner, or fire one in at the near post.”
