Ken Bates believes, as it stands, Chelsea should travel to Israel as planned for their UEFA Cup date against Hapoel Tel Aviv.

A number of Blues players are known to be apprehensive about making the trip to the Middle East for the UEFA Cup second-round first-leg meeting on October 18 in light of the recent air strikes on Afghanistan.

Bates said: "Our managing director, Colin Hutchinson, went out there last week and had conversations with all the security authorities and is quite relaxed."

He added: "In any case, somebody once wrote that a coward dies a thousand times and a brave man dies but once. Well I'm going to take the chance and be a brave man. I think that we have to go about our business, because if we don't the terrorists have won."

Chelsea's players are set to meet with the club's management ahead of Saturday's game against Leicester at Stamford Bridge to voice their concerns.