Gary Cahill 'naturally' worried about winning back his Chelsea place following suspension

In contention: Chelsea captain Gary Cahill
Chelsea FC via Getty Images
Vaishali Bhardwaj11 September 2017

Gary Cahill says it is "natural" for him to have been worried about his place in the Chelsea team because of the success the Blues have had in his absence.

Cahill, who was appointed Chelsea captain in the summer following the departure of John Terry, suffered a nightmare first game as skipper after he was sent off against Burnley in the opening game of the season.

Summer signing Antonio Rudiger was brought in to replace Cahill for Chelsea's next three games, which all ended in wins for Antonio Conte's side.

Cahill is available to play when Chelsea open up their Champions League campaign with a home clash against Qarabag on Tuesday, and the defender admitted he has tried to lead the team in the past few weeks despite being suspended.

He told reporters on Monday: "It's natural. If you're out the team, the team does well... I'm part of the squad and I'm an individual player.

"I'm available for selection now and whenever you're available you can influence things. It’s about the team. It's about the team doing well.

"You try to influence in the changing rooms. Nothing's changed for me personally. It's a great honour to be captain. It's a responsibility."

In Pictures | Leicester vs Chelsea | 09/09/2017

1/22

He added: "I'm itching to play and I'm looking forward to getting back involved with the squad now.

"The most frustrating thing is when you can't play football. It was a large period of time that I was out. All you can do when you're out is try to influence the lads."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in