Chelsea interim manager Frank Lampard says defender Benoit Badiashile is “close” to becoming more involved in the first team.
Badiashile joined the Blues in January from Monaco but has found game time difficult to come by since Lampard took over from Graham Potter, having played just one of the past five Premier League games.
Champions League registration rules meant Lampard was also forced to leave the France defender out of the squad completely for the quarter-final games with Real Madrid, but the Blues boss has hinted that Badiashile will be more involved before the end of the season.
“Yeah, he’s very close,” Lampard said when asked about the prospect of more game time for the 22-year-old.
“He couldn’t play in the Champions League. He played against Brighton which was a difficult match for everybody.
“He’s close. He’s in competition with Thiago (Silva), Wesley (Fofana) and Trevoh (Chalobah) in that area of the pitch. He’s very close. He’s training well.
“He’s come here from a different league at a young age in the Premier League, it’s understandable to have moments of game time, maybe moments of not. To a degree, it’s needed to develop a player in terms of finding your feet in the league as a young player.
“In a normal case at a club like Chelsea and maybe other clubs, there’s a lot more stability but at the moment that’s not the case.
“So to give credit to those players themselves, that’s not easy to take the responsibility on their shoulders but what they are all doing is trying to work and keep going. We’re here as staff to support that.”
