Transfer: Xabi Alonso bans five first-team players from Chelsea training

At least four Chelsea players are training away from Xabi Alonso’s first-team group, with their futures up in the air.

They are: Nicolas Jackson, Liam Delap, Axel Disasi and Tosin Adarabioyo.

According to Sky Sports, the situation is different to last season when the likes of Raheem Sterling and Disasi were in a so-called ‘bomb squad’ of out-of-favour players.

They trained at different times and had to use the academy facilities.

This time, the separate group trains at the same time as the rest of Chelsea’s players and can use the same facilities at the club’s Cobham training ground.

Chelsea currently have over 40 senior players on their books and believe splitting the squad into two groups is necessary to maintain the quality of training sessions.

Chelsea are managing the situation carefully after FIFA introduced new rules this summer that effectively ban clubs from creating ‘bomb squads’ and trying to isolate unwanted players.