Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has tempered expectations of a possible injury comeback for Ben Chilwell this season.
The left-back has been sidelined since damaging his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) against Juventus in a Champions League group stage game in November.
Having initially been given time to see whether the injury would heal naturally by the Chelsea medical staff, Chilwell had surgery on his knee the following month and was ruled out indefinitely.
The England international has returned to the grass and has been pictured carrying out individual drills at the club's Cobham training ground, but his manager does not expect to have him available again this season.
Speaking to the media ahead of Chelsea's Premier League clash with Arsenal at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday night, Tuchel revealed the defender is set to resume group training, but not with the first team.
"I don’t think so," Tuchel replied when asked if we could see Chilwell return to action before the end of the campaign.
"Ben will now go into the transition period where he can join in with the academy team for training on a tactical level over the next few weeks. We will give him time and won’t try to rush Chilly."
The German coach continued: "This will be his next steps and hopefully he can join in with first-team training before the end of the season, but there will be no matches at this kind of level for him."
Tuchel also explained Callum Hudson-Odoi's absence, with the wide man sidelined since February with an Achilles problem.
"With Callum, we take things day by day and week by week but it is not possible for him to join in with team training just yet," he said. "We will not rush him either."
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Chelsea will also be without Mateo Kovacic for the visit of Arsenal. The Croatian limped off after turning his ankle in the first half of the Blues' FA Cup semi-final victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday.
"Kova is out for the game tomorrow," Tuchel confirmed. "He has an ankle ligament injury and is in some pain.
"He is looking at two weeks out and hopefully he won’t be out for much longer than that, but two weeks can be a long time for us in terms of games."
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Source : 90min