Just a few weeks short of 10 years since he last played here in a Chelsea shirt, a familiar and popular figure will be running out for Saturday's FA Cup opponents as Frankie goes to Stamford Bridge one more time.

Now 36-years-old, Huddersfield's Frank Sinclair may be in the twilight of his career but it's a career whose longevity and trophy success marks him down as one of the outstanding Chelsea youth products of the last 30 years.

One thing is surely guaranteed and that's a warm reception this weekend from the home fans for a defender whose determination and enthusiasm was always appreciated - and was ultimately rewarded.

Frank took time out this week from preparing for the game to talk to chelseafc.com about his return and his current club as they look to cause an almighty cup upset.

He signed for Huddersfield last summer from Burnley having spent the final three months of last season on loan at the Yorkshire club. They may be below halfway in League One at the moment but they made a splash nationally by knocking out top flight Birmingham in the FA Cup third round and following it up with a fourth round win at Oldham.

Frank recalls the moment he heard the fifth round draw would be taking him back to west London.

'I was dead chuffed because Huddersfield had played Chelsea a couple of years ago in the Cup as well, before I joined, so I thought to myself the chance of drawing Chelsea away again was unlikely,' he says.

'I just wanted to get a big team like the rest of our players wanted. Obviously they are all happy to get Chelsea but it just makes it that little bit more special for me that I have the opportunity to come back and play there. I thought the chance had bypassed me since my Premier League days had gone as the chances to play one of the top four in the country are very few and far between.

'I am obviously going to go there and try to do a job and get a result. But it does make it a special day, to go back to the club and see the fans that I haven't played in front of for many years now.'

Frank's last match at the Bridge was for Leicester in the FA Cup eight years ago and for anyone looking for omens, Chelsea went on to lift the trophy that season. Leicester was the club he was sold to when his 218 game career with us came to an end.

John Terry is one of the few Chelsea youth products of the last three decades who can claim to have won more than Frank and is the only player remaining from Frank's time at the Bridge.

'There are still people who work behind the scenes and help to run the club that I know,' he points out.

'And there's Clarkey on the coaching staff side. I spent a lot of years playing alongside him and he is doing a brilliant job. I thought he could do something like that because of the way he played the game - very professional - and he always led teams and played like a captain. I wasn't surprised when he went into that role at the club.'

Responsibility has also come Frank's way later in his career and at times he has been seen wearing the armband at Huddersfield.

'I am not the club captain but I have helped to vice-captain and been team captain sometimes when Jonathan Worthington has not been fit. He's had a bad time with injuries. It's a role I'm comfortable in doing having been the captain at Burnley.

'We have quite a young team at Huddersfield. The experience is me and Robert Page, the defender we signed from Coventry in the transfer window.

'There's also Andy Booth, the legend of the football club,' Frank adds, highlighting a striker who played at Sheffield Wednesday and on-loan at Spurs in between two spells at Huddersfield.

'He had his testimonial last season and is a crowd favourite. He's getting on a bit himself but has been scoring goals this season and the manager has talked him into keep going. He's the target man that the club hasn't got elsewhere.

'There are a lot of young players who came through the ranks together but they are good players with experience - a lot of 23, 24-year-olds that have played 100 to 150 games each for the club. Playing Chelsea is going to be a tough game, we have no illusions about that but we are going to give it our best shot and see how we get on.'

Frank himself is most likely to be seen at right-back on Saturday although occasional player shortage has seen him in the centre on occasions, including the 2-1 win over Birmingham when he won rave reviews. To be fulfilling the up-and-down requirements of full-back at 36 is no mean feat.

'I'm still not too bad pace-wise,' he insists. 'I'm not quite as quick as I used to be, but I am not slow - yet!

'I have just agreed a new contract to stay at the club for another year. The manager is happy with me and at the moment I still feel fit and am getting through games quite comfortably.'

The new deal allows Frank to delay a decision on his future. He speaks of options both inside and outside the game, including a London property company the boy from Lambeth has owned for five years.

When he does pack up playing, he will look back on the final two years of his Chelsea spell as the highlight here.

'Being part of the team that won the FA Cup after so many years without winning anything was great for us and the supporters and was a turning point for the club. And then going back a year later and winning the League Cup and actually scoring at Wembley; that is something I'll never forget and not many people can say they have done.'

It was Frank taking the chance to move up from the back in extra-time open play and head in that broke the deadlock against Middlesbrough. Injury left winning the 1998 League Cup as his last Chelsea game, although it was a trophy he would lift again with Leicester.

By scoring at Wembley, he had followed his friend and team-mate Eddie Newton in neatly balancing up the penalties each conceded in the 1994 FA Cup Final defeat by Man United (a harsh award in Frank's case). Eddie found the net in the 1997 FA Cup Final.

It was a lovely way to cap a rarely dull Chelsea career that had opened with Frank voted Player of the Year in his first full season.

'I was thrown in at the deep end as a kid because Paul Elliott had a horrific injury that ended up finishing his career. They were a big pair of boots to fill and I went in and just grew in confidence.

'The players around me like Steve Clarke, and Paul was giving me advice off the pitch, made it a lot easier. To be named Player of the Year in my first full year in the team was not something that would have ever crossed my mind so that was phenomenal for me. I still remember the evening like it was yesterday.'

In two days time, Frank will be the oldest player on the Stamford Bridge pitch. He has words for the Chelsea fans who will be there to greet him.

'I'm really looking forward to it. It will be a really touching afternoon because I played there for so many years and all the memories are there, just like the supporters who watched me play over the years. I just hope I can still put on the sort of performance that you grew up watching me play.'