Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is pleased to have Billy Gilmour back in action.

Gilmour has not featured for Chelsea since damaging the meniscus in his right knee in our 3-2 win at Crystal Palace following the post-lockdown restart in the summer. He made a brief cameo for Scotland Under-21s last week, though that was cut short by a bizarre red card, and played an hour for Chelsea in the EFL Trophy on Wednesday night.

"He is fit again," reported the boss. "He played on Wednesday night in the EFL Trophy, got good minutes and I've heard he played well so we are happy with him and he'll play again at the weekend in the Under-23s.

"He's getting minutes but he's not match fit. That will be a short period as he is a generally fit boy."

While competition for places in the team has intensified following our summer recruitment, Lampard believes Gilmour can continue to make a big impact on the senior stage at Stamford Bridge.

"He made great strides in a short time last year," continued the Blues head coach. "I was very confident with putting Billy in for a big part of the season, from his training and then when the time came.

"I possibly held him back slightly at times looking back. He put in some really good performances before his injury.

"We must put some context on it that he is still a young player and we have good competition in the squad in that area but I have absolute faith in Billy that he is going to be a big player for us for a long time to come. I'm really excited to have him back fit."