Frank Lampard had said in the build-up to the Watford game that Kante was ‘close’ to returning to full fitness and would ‘possibly be ready for Ajax’. His involvement at Cobham today is another step in the right direction for our French midfielder.

Barkley limped off against Newcastle in the first game after the October international break and hasn’t featured since, with his and Andreas Christensen’s focus now on getting match-fit, something Lampard explained on Friday.

‘I’m quite big that the players come back into training at the level that they left so they’re then ready to play games, because they can’t just walk straight back in after injuries. There has to be some progression.’

Toni Rudiger is seeing a consultant today and was not involved in training, but everyone else was out there on a drizzly November morning in Surrey. The media present watched on for the first 15 minutes as the players were put through their warm-up drills and then started getting involved with the ball.

We take on Ajax at Stamford Bridge at 8pm tomorrow night. Victory in Amsterdam a fortnight ago means we are level on points with the Dutch side at the top of Group H. We have the chance to give our qualification hopes a significant boost with another win against them tomorrow.

Lampard and one of his players will be looking forward to the game at a press conference later on Monday, which starts at 1.30pm UK time. You can watch it live on this website and the 5th Stand, with the boss expected to give more detailed injury updates.