Chelsea without four of their new stars for Champions League due to UEFA rules
Chelsea will have to leave four of their new signings out of their Champions League squad for the knockout stages.
The Blues spent in the region of £300million in the January transfer window, capped off by the British record transfer fee of £107m for Enzo Fernandez from Benfica. Mykhaylo Mudryk, Benoit Badiashile, Noni Madueke, Malo Gusto, Andrey Santos and David Datro Fofana were also recruited, while Joao Felix joined on loan.
Gusto has returned to Lyon for the remainder of the season, but there's a difficult decision to be made over the remaining seven newbies. That's because UEFA only allow three new players to be added to Champions League squads.
READ MORE: Chelsea finally confirm £107m Enzo Fernandez deal after hours of leaving fans worried
With a £9m loan fee having been spent on Felix, who's currently serving a three-match suspension in the Premier League, he's likely to take one of the spots.
Given the departure of Jorginho to Arsenal, Fernandez seems to be a shoo-in for another of them. And after his electric debut against Chelsea, Mudryk will probably be the third.
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Badiashile is in with an outside chance of making the cut, but Graham Potter already has Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, Kalidou Koulibaly and Cesar Azpilicueta registered.
Chelsea, who currently have 24 of their 25 spots filled so will have to remove two other players, have to make their decision before the deadline at midnight on Thursday (February 2).
They travel to face Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their round-of-16 tie in two weeks' time, with the return leg at Stamford Bridge being played on March 7.
Fortunately the Blues won't face the same conundrum with their Prem squad as they can make unlimited changes to that for the second half of the season.
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