Henderson joined Chelsea over the summer, bringing with him a wealth of experience and the ability to stamp his authority on games from the midfield.

He is yet to feature as he recovers from an arm injury suffered while on international duty with England at this summer’s FIFA World Cup, and tomorrow’s Carabao Cup third-round tie against Leeds United will come too early for the 36-year-old to make his debut.

With Henderson obviously keen to get back to full fitness and out on the pitch with his new team-mates, Alonso was asked if the midfielder has been passing his experience on to his fellow Blues in recent weeks, or if he has been fully focused on his own recovery.

‘Both! For sure he's been very close to the team,’ responded our Spanish manager.

‘Even being injured, he's been travelling with us. I know that he likes and he needs to have this connection with the team, to have this impact off the pitch, on the pitch as well.

‘In training he's doing very well, but still it's frustrating for him that even being the arm, that it's taking that long, but I think that he's in the last stage of his recovery.’

Alonso was also asked about Caicedo’s recovery from injury, having earlier confirmed that, like Henderson, the Ecuadorian midfielder will not feature at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening.

After Caicedo's aborted comeback off the bench against Brighton & Hove Albion just over a week ago, Alonso is determined to take his time to minimise the chances of a recurrence of the injury.

‘He is training,’ revealed Xabi. ‘He has in his calf a little issue.

‘It is the same as he had before Brighton and I wanted to have Moi, and probably it was my mistake to push him too early. So that's why I'm cautious now not to make the same mistake.’