Chelsea’s mannequins have become the unfortunate victims of Frank Lampard’s return to the club as the head coach prepares to wrap up his first pre-season trip in charge of the Blues.

Having completed his first week in the hot seat, Lampard will take a second look at his squad in the friendly against St Patrick’s at Richmond Park in Dublin on Saturday.

One of the striking elements of the first week of the Lampard reign has been how little love the Chelsea mannequins have been getting from the players.

A common sight of both the Antonio Conte and Maurizio Sarri eras was the Chelsea players with an arm draped around a mannequin as they listened to or waited for instruction during what were often slow, laborious training sessions.

But Lampard has increased the pace of life on the training pitch to the point where the mannequins are no longer getting a cuddle from bored players because there is no time.

Those involved have told Telegraph Sport that there is no longer any hanging around, listening to long speeches or waiting to be told what to do. Instead, it has been one drill and on to the next during the week-long double sessions.