Our Under-18s went into the March international break at the end of a hectic run of fixtures, including three matches in seven days immediately before its start, in addition to several players also being involved for the Under-21s and helping our Under-17s reach the final of the Premier League Cup during that period.

While development is always a priority within our Academy sides, that busy schedule inevitably resulted in a large focus on recovery and match preparation. That means head coach Hassan Sulaiman is grateful for this opportunity to devote more time to working with his players one-on-one.

The Blues began this international break in good spirits, making it four wins in a row by defeating Reading 2-0 in our last game. We aren't in action again at Under-18s level until we host West Ham United, in arguably our biggest league fixture of the season so far, on Saturday 6 April, giving Sulaiman plenty of time to work with his team on the training pitch at Cobham.

'We’ve still got quite a number of players here who aren't on international duty,' he explained. 'During these periods we tend to spend a lot of time doing unit work, and having a lot more of a focus on individuals.

'Over the couple of weeks of the international break in particular, and especially the first week, there is more of an individual focus in terms of what we’re doing in our training programme.

'We were doing a lot of recovery over the last few weeks, before the break, but now it’s more a case of zooming in on the individual bits we want to work on with players.

'Naturally our programme is tailored around making sure that individual development is always central to our work, while also having a team focus of course. These international breaks give us a good opportunity to do that.

'Because you’re naturally working with a smaller group in the breaks, you do get to zoom in and provide a bit more detail to some of the individuals that are not away.'

While the focus is very much on the development of those remaining at Cobham during this period, that does not mean those who are absent are out of Sulaiman's mind, with the head coach and his staff keeping a close eye on those who are away competing for their countries.

'We also take the opportunity to go and watch some of the international games,' added Hassan. 'Between us as coaches, we’ll try and divvy up the responsibilities to watch the Under-17s and the Under-18s, just so those boys feel the support of the club.

'Also, we look at the games through a different lens. Going to see them away from the Chelsea environment, there are things we might see that ordinarily we don’t necessarily see when they’re with us.

'So there’s a bit of a mixture of things that we do, there's no let off and the international break is definitely a valuable time for us to work.'

It is already an important few weeks for Sulaiman and his team, then, before returning to action with a massive game. Chelsea currently sit second in the Under-18 Premier League southern table, with three games in hand and a three-point deficit to leaders West Ham, who we face at Cobham in our next fixture on Saturday 6 April.