Chelsea have been handed a fitness boost ahead of the Premier League’s resumption, with Mike Penders returning to training.

The three-week international break is now in the rearview mirror, and for Chelsea, attention has turned to the visit of Bournemouth on Saturday.

The Blues had been hit with a number of injury concerns before and during this block of international fixtures, with Reece James, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro withdrawing from England and Brazil duty, respectively, citing injuries. Jamie Gittens has also been struck down with what appears to be a serious ankle injury, which forced him onto crutches.

Penders missed some of Belgium’s camp with a quad injury and did not appear in any of his nation’s four matches during this break, with Manchester United’s Senne Lammens and Leipzig’s Maarten Vandevoordt preferred.

But he has now been pictured in full first-team training at Cobham, and can be seen duelling with Jorrel Hato in an image shared on the club’s website.

He may be in line to start this weekend, with Emi Martinez still on Argentina duty as of the early hours of Wednesday morning, when he appeared in Lionel Messi’s testimonial friendly against Benin. It is not yet clear whether he will be back in London in time for the visit of the Cherries.

Also pictured in the session at Cobham were returning internationals Pedro Neto and Estevao. Emmauel Emegha was pictured in a session earlier this week.

Conspicuous by their absences, though, were Palmer, Joao Pedro and Moises Caicedo, none of whom appear to have trained in recent weeks.

Caicedo has been dealing with a calf injury since the summer, which has prevented him from making any meaningful contribution to this campaign, while Joao Pedro is thought to be dealing with a knee issue, for which he has been seeing a specialist this month.

Palmer was reportedly handed some holiday time in the early days of the break, which he spent in the Caribbean with a personal trainer who aided in his recovery.