Earlier this week it was announced by the Premier League that the season will restart later this month, with our first game back following the pause due to the outbreak of coronavirus pitting us against Aston Villa on Sunday 21 June.

As the squad continue to work hard in preparation for that fixture, England international Mount has revealed he cannot wait to get started again and explained that the players are looking in good shape ahead of the big kick-off.

‘It’s very exciting,’ Mount admitted. ‘It’s something we’ve all been waiting for a long time, to get back playing when the time was right, so we are all excited.

‘To get the games back is great and it’s something we all wanted if it was possible. We all love playing games and representing Chelsea in the Premier League and we are all looking forward to getting started again.

‘It’s been a long time since we played and the two months we had away in lockdown certainly seemed like such an age! So it’s been great to be able to get back out on the pitch at Cobham and do what we love.

‘I think I speak on behalf of all the boys when I say we had to ensure we stayed fit during the lockdown, ready for when we could go back to work. It was important to remain active and to be honest, I think most footballers find it difficult to stay too far away from a football. I know I’ve been kicking one around my house all the time!

‘Training has been great, and the boys are looking sharp. I think at the start, having been away for so long, there was a little rustiness to shake off but we are back to normal now and raring to go again.’

In recent weeks, there have been protests taking place around the world following the death of George Floyd in the United States.

The Chelsea players and coaching staff showed their support for the Black Lives Matter movement by forming the letter H, for humans, and kneeling.

The player-led initiative was something Mason, and his fellow Chelsea team-mates, were fully supportive of and he hopes the message of ‘enough is enough’ reaches far and wide.

‘It was something we wanted to do,’ he states. ‘The picture we sent out speaks for itself and the message that goes with it is so powerful. We all need to stick together. Enough is enough and that is the message we wanted to send out.

‘As footballers we are quite fortunate to have a fairly big following on social media, so we wanted to use that platform as a way of putting our message across and show that we are all sticking together.

‘Everyone in the team was fully behind the decision to take the knee and show our solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement.’