Chelsea interim Frank Lampard has positive words for young defender Benoit Badiashile.

The Frenchman has not been involved as much as fans were expecting in recent weeks.

Lampard was asked about how the defender is training and whether he is close to a first team start.

He responded during a press conference: "Yeah, he's very close. He couldn't play in the Champions League. He played against Brighton which was a difficult match for everybody. He's close. He's in competition with Thiago [Silva], Wesley [Fofana] and Trevoh [Chalobah] in that area of the pitch. He's very close. He's training well.

"He's come here from a different league at a young age in the Premier League, it's understandable to have moments of game time, maybe moments of not. To a degree, it's needed to develop a player in terms of finding your feet in the league as a young player.

"In a normal case at a club like Chelsea and maybe other clubs, there's a lot more stability but at the moment that's not the case. So to give credit to those players themselves, that's not easy to take the responsibility on their shoulders but what they are all doing is trying to work and keep going. We're here as staff to support that."