Chelsea returned to training yesterday after the Premier League gave permission for clubs to take the first steps towards ‘Project Restart’.
In keeping with government guidelines, the players were required to maintain social distancing and also were only within small groups, with a maximum of five in each.
It’s the first phase of the league’s plan to bring back football in the UK, after Germany’s Bundesliga got back under way at the weekend.
The Blues players were back at Cobham and Frank Lampard was able to take his first training session for more than two months.
But what did we learn from Chelsea’s return to some sense of normality?
Injury clear-up
Before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, the Blues had been struggling with injuries to several key players.
Mateo Kovacic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi and N’Golo Kante were just a few who were recovering from injury.
However, as training returned yesterday, so did those players and that will be a massive boost for Lampard in a crucial part of the season.
Of course, like many of the Premier League clubs, the players will be suffering from a lack of match fitness and sharpness.
However, to see some massively key players back out on the training pitch is a great sight to see if the Blues want to keep their top four spot.
Callum Hudson-Odoi’s return
Callum Hudson-Odoi was at the front of many national newspapers on Tuesday morning after the 19-year-old was arrested at his apartment.
The England international was arrested by police on ‘suspicion of rape’ after breaking lockdown measures in meeting a girl.
There was a question over whether or not the young winger would be part of training due to the incident.
However, after a negative Coronavirus test, Hudson-Odoi was able to be part of the training session with the rest of his teammates.
The youngster was released on bail and while enquiries continue, he will be able to carry on at Cobham and take part of the training as normal.
Lampard trusting his staff
For Lampard, this is not going to be what he expected when he embarked on his first season as Chelsea head coach.
However, this is going to be the way that the Blues will have to go through their training for the next few weeks and it is going to be a big moment for his backroom staff, as well.
Of course, Lampard can’t be at every single small group all the time, so it will be up to the staff to keep a key eye on their players.
Lampard has a real trust in his staff, headed up by Jody Morris, Chris Jones and Joe Edwards, who will be setting out the agenda.
The Blues boss will be doing his best to keep an eye on every player as best he can, and he will be getting reports from his staff.
The players who have let themselves go
Just like the rest of the population, the Chelsea players will not have been able to go to a hairdressers or one of their popular barbers.
Some of them looked suspiciously clean-cut, with Olivier Giroud still looking like nothing has changed.
However, some of the players had come back almost unrecognisable, especially Jorginho who looked like Tom Hanks in Castaway.
Blues fans were left stunned by the fact N’Golo Kante had hair, while Kepa Arrizabalaga looked like he had just rolled out of bed.
We’re used to seeing players looking trim and neat, so it was pretty funny to see that some of them have taken the opportunity to let themselves go.
Players delighted to be back
There has been a lot of discussion about whether or not the players should be back to training and there have been ardent protesters about it.
Watford’s Troy Deeney has been one of the most outspoken players so far, and he absolutely has the right to feel like that to protect his young child.
However, it was clear yesterday that the Chelsea players were delighted to be back to some sense of normality, even if it was all a bit different.
The players are going to have to train like that for some time, but it’s obvious they are keen to get back to playing for their club.
