Chelsea star not spotted in training ahead of UCL showdown vs Real Madrid

Chelsea have held an open training session at Cobham ahead of their Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash with Real Madrid at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday evening

Kalidou Koulibaly was not spotted at an open Chelsea training session ahead of the Blues' Champions League quarter-final second-leg showdown with Real Madrid on Tuesday.

The Blues held a session on Monday morning at Cobham where the whole squad was present apart from Koulibaly. The 31-year-old defender limped off in Chelsea's defeat with a hamstring problem at the Santiago Bernabeu last week after sprinting back to recover a loose ball.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Thiago Silva both trained, though, after being missing from the Chelsea squad in Saturday's defeat to Brighton at Stamford Bridge. Likewise with Kai Havertz and N'Golo Kante. Youngster Lewis Hall was also present with the first-team.

Chelsea have it all to do at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday with European champions Real Madrid leading 2-0 after a dominant display in the Spanish capital last week. Goals in either half from Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio were too much for 10-man Chelsea at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Interim Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard has the difficult job of trying to rebuild some confidence into his underperforming squad. Lampard has only been back at Stamford Bridge for just over a week and so far it has been mostly speaking to the players privately, he has revealed, to try and remind them of the talent they have.

"Well, there's a lot to it," Lampard responded when asked how he is trying to rebuild the confidence in his squad. "I think at the minute, it has been mostly conversations and meetings than training pitch stuff.

"Training pitch stuff was all pretty walkthrough and low level because of the [tiredness] in the legs. It is more about speaking to the players individually. When we do get the chance to work, I think the team needs some physical work. I think that's important for us because at this level you have to be right on the limit and we are not on the limit right now.

"I think that can be a capacity thing with the players for whatever reason. It doesn't matter how we got there but it needs to be addressed now. That's how we work, everything is there for the players in how we can push and drive the players through individual and collective work to do that."