Enzo Maresca has confirmed several members of his first-team squad will again play 90 minutes in tomorrow's Conference League game against Astana – but players from the club's Academy sides will also be included on the trip to Kazakhstan.
A sixteen-hour round trip coupled with temperatures below -10°C awaits those who journey to Almaty, the location of our fifth Conference League fixture due to renovation work at Astana's usual home stadium.
The travelling group also does not arrive back in London until Friday morning, which Maresca highlighted as a consideration when selecting his squad given the Blues are in Premier League action on Sunday evening against Brentford at Stamford Bridge.
'We have a session this morning,' said the Blues head coach at his pre-match press conference. 'The general decision [over the squad] is already there but we will see.
‘Some of them will be here, some of them will fly with us. We try to manage in the same way we have done until today. We have many young players with us, the rest will be working.’
'The target since we started the season is to allow all of them, no matter the competition, to play 90 minutes every week. Most of those who play tomorrow would have also played against Southampton last week. So we will try to keep them in the regular situation of playing 90 minutes every week. This is what we’re trying to do.'
Maresca did confirm one or two players from the club's Under-21s, such as defender Josh Acheampong, would be 'playing from the start' and that others would also be with the travelling group.
The Blues head coach added: 'For the younger ones, it is to enjoy this moment because it’s always nice to be involved in the first team and involved in a European competition.’
Chelsea head to Kazakhstan in the knowledge progression from the league phase has already been secured. What is yet to be determined is whether we enter the Round of 16 directly or have to go through a knockout play-off phase.
That could be decided tomorrow evening and the focus will then switch straight back to Premier League action and Brentford.
'You never know whether we might need one of the guys who play tomorrow on Sunday,' highlighted Maresca. 'Ideally, we would not because we land at six o'clock on Friday morning and it’s not normal to do that and then play on Sunday, but if we need [them to], they are going to make the effort.'