Antonio Conte has confirmed that Chelsea defender Kurt Zouma is ahead of schedule as he tries to get match fit following a serious knee injury.

Zouma has not played for the Blues since suffering ligament damage against Manchester United back in February.

The France international had targeted a return to the first team squad in September, but is already joining fully with the squad and could come back sooner than that.

On the eve of Chelsea's match against AC Milan in Minneapolis, Zouma played a full practice match with the rest of the first team and was marking striker Diego Costa.

The 21-year-old, who was playing next to Gary Cahill, showed no sign of discomfort and demonstrated the pace which made him such an asset last term.

However, Conte still might take the cautious approach and explained: "Zouma is improving a lot and this is good news for us.

"But we know that his injury was very bad and for this reason we must respect him.

"It's important that Zouma takes his time to be sure to go into the team and to stay till the end.

"For me it's important to see that he is improving and I am very happy for the guy.

"His injury was very, very bad."