Chelsea’s pre-season preparations disrupted with players in quarantine

Chelsea’s pre-season plans have run into complications after it emerged that a number of Frank Lampard’s players are in quarantine.

Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Christian Pulisic and Fikayo Tomori are self-isolating after returning from their holiday to Mykonos, and four other players are believed to be staying away from the training ground under Covid-19 guidelines.

Mykonos is not on the list of places from which people must self-isolate on their return to the UK.

The development poses a potential headache for England’s manager, Gareth Southgate. Abraham and Mount are in the England squad for the Nations League matches against Iceland on 5 September and Denmark on 8 September.

Chelsea returned to training last week and continue their preparations with a friendly at Brighton on Saturday. Their first competitive game, also at Brighton, is on 14 September.

The club are close to confirming the signing of the centre-back Thiago Silva after his release by Paris St-Germain, having on Wednesday announced the arrival of the left-back Ben Chilwell in a £50m move from Leicester.