What was just hopeful news at the start of the week has continued to trend toward a real possibility, as according to Matt Law’s latest dispatch in the Telegraph, midfielder Tiemoué Bakayoko has “made himself available” for selection for Sunday’s game against Spurs while there’s even a chance that Eden Hazard could be fit enough to make the bench as well.

Earlier today, both players featured for Chelsea in a closed-doors friendly at Cobham against a QPR youth side, which the Blues won 8-0. It was the first match action of any sort for the duo this summer.

Eden Hazard and Tiemoue Bakayoko feature in 8-0 win over QPR at Cobham https://t.co/ujvAByFHQS #CFC — Express Sport (@DExpress_Sport) August 17, 2017

The scoreline hardly matters of course; what matters is that both Bakayoko and Hazard came through unscathed. They’re both well ahead of their previous injury prognoses, though we should remember that Chelsea were confident last month of having Bakayoko back before September. Meanwhile, the Belgian national team are already making noise of wanting to call up Hazard for the friendlies in two weeks — a bold move from them to be sure, but one that’s indicative of where they think Hazard is in his recovery.

Roberto Martínez: "Eden Hazard is almost back. I would love to have him in my Belgium squad for Gibraltar & Greece." (Sportwereld). #cfc pic.twitter.com/V62eXQJalg — Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) August 17, 2017

There’s always concern in these sorts of situations about pushing players too quickly, but certainly in Bakayoko’s case, we’re in a bit of a crisis with no other midfielder available to Conte for Sunday’s game against Spurs. If Bakayoko is at all ready to go, and he has at least some idea of how Conte wants the team to play, then he has to start.

Fingers crossed.