Chelsea are gearing up for their fourth Premier League clash of the new campaign as they host Nottingham Forest at Stamford Bridge, and an injury update has come to light on defender Benoit Badiashile among others.
Who is injured for Chelsea?
Blues manager Mauricio Pochettino have overseen a fairly mixed start to his reign and the new top season, with Chelsea securing a victory, draw and loss from their opening three matches.
They started the campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to Liverpool, while high-flying West Ham dealt Pochettino his first loss as Chelsea manager with a 3-1 victory over them at the London Stadium soon after.
The west Londoners did seal their first win of the new top flight campaign with a comfortable 3-0 drubbing of Luton Town, but only just managed to edge past AFC Wimbledon in the Carabao Cup a few days later.
It is difficult to predict exactly what to expect from Chelsea going by these results, and it will be interesting to see if Pochettino can quickly a gel a plethora of new summer signings into a much-changed side from last campaign.
Indeed, Christopher Nkunku, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson, Lesley Ugochukwu, Robert Sanchez, Romeo Lavia, Moises Caicedo and Cole Palmer all put pen to paper on moves to Chelsea.
They come in to replace Kalidou Koulibaly, N'Golo Kante, Edouard Mendy, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Mateo Kovacic, Mason Mount, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Cesar Azpilicueta, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ethan Ampadu and Callum Hudson-Odoi; who all secured moves elsewhere.
The heavy change in personnel could prove challenging for Pochettino as he seeks to rebuild the side in his own image, and he won't be helped by the plethora of Chelsea injuries either.
Relaying the latest injury news, Chelsea share that the Blues will be without as many as nine players for their clash with Forest today.
Armando Broja, Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James, Lavia, Carney Chukwuemeka, Wesley Fofana, Marcus Bettinelli and Badiashile are the men in question.
For the latter player, while he is set to miss the Forest clash today, he has apparently returned to partial team training and is scheduled to return after the international break (chelseafc.com).
How good is Benoit Badiashile?
The 22-year-old's return after Forest will come as a boost for Pochettino, especially since he actually ranked among Chelsea's top four players last season, according to WhoScored.
Badishile has also been praised by former AS Monaco assistant manager and current Antalyaspor assistant Joao Tralhao, who worked with the colossal 6 foot 4 defender during Thierry Henry's time in charge of the Ligue 1 outfit.
"In terms of personality, he is very cold," said Tralhao to Sky.
"He does not shake if he is playing against Mbappe or Neymar, if the stadium is empty or full. He is a very balanced boy. His character is outstanding. He focuses on what he must do to perform. It is one of his best qualities.
"He has that maturity and that emotional control. That impressed Thierry a lot and he had no hesitation to play him. Some questioned that. He was 17 and centre-back is a position that requires some experience. Now we can say Thierry was right to bet on him."