Chelsea have told about 14 first-team players that they are not in the manager’s plans for the season, and have been banished from training with the first team.

The exiled players have been forced to train in a separate group under loan manager Carlo Cudicini.

A number of high-profile players including Raheem Sterling, Trevoh Chalobah and Ben Chilwell have been forced away from the first team.

The set of banished Chelsea players is called ‘bomb squad’ in football parlance, and the Professional Footballers’ Association wants to put an end to this practice.

PFA have cited concerns about the players’ well-being. According to the Athletic, the PFA will take action against such behaviour – and potentially help players take clubs to court.

FIFA’s regulations also claim that forcing a player to train separately could be classified as “abusive conduct”.

“Managers change and they make an assessment of their squad, deciding that some players are not in their plans,” general counsel of the PFA James King said in 2022.

“But a player still has an employment contract and that is for a fixed term. The player is an employee and they have rights and protections like anyone else.

“This isn’t keeping a player’s skills up to the level they should be. These are professional footballers and the employer is obliged to train them at the highest possible level.

“We’ve got to be pragmatic because we understand how the industry works but you’ve got to also understand it from a player’s perspective. A lot of the time they’ve not done anything wrong. It’s just that they’re not fancied.”