Palmer was ruled out of our trip to Arsenal on Tuesday evening due to illness but returned to partial team training at Cobham yesterday.

The 21-year-old was back out on the grass at our training base this morning and Pochettino said at his pre-match press conference that Palmer is in contention to feature at Villa Park.

'Cole has trained well in the past two days,' the Chelsea head coach explained. 'We assume he will be ready for tomorrow's game and be part of the squad.’

There was also positive news on Reece James and Levi Colwill, who have undertaken partial team training this week.

James hasn't featured for the Blues since December after undergoing hamstring surgery while Colwill has been absent since the beginning of March with an issue sustained in our draw at Brentford.

'They are close and yesterday they were doing partial training with the squad,' said Pochettino. 'But they are not available [for the game against Aston Villa].'

Unfortunately, there will be three new absentees for tomorrow's game. Enzo has been ruled out for the remainder of the campaign after undergoing surgery on a groin issue while Chukwuemeka and Sterling have suffered injuries this week.

'The moment Enzo felt pain and limitations because of the problem, the most important thing was to fix the situation for him,' explained Pochettino.

'If he does not feel well and can't perform because of the situation, it's not good for him, not good for the team and not good for the club. So, as soon as possible we fix the situation, move on, and focus on his recovery as soon as possible.'

On Chukwuemeka and Sterling, Pochettino added: ‘Sterling suffered pain in his lower back and Carney felt something in his knee, related to his problem before. We hope it’s not a big issue and he can be back as soon as possible.

'We are going to lose some players that were there and thinking of helping the team. Ok. The positive is that a few young guys will join the team for Aston Villa and that's a good experience for these guys.'