The Blues host the Dutch side in the league phase of the Champions League and will look to build on Saturday’s impressive 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League.

Fernandez was absent for that victory at the City Ground due to a minor issue sustained while on international duty with Argentina. Whether he returns against Ajax will be decided after today's training session at Cobham, as Maresca outlined during his pre-match press conference.

‘Enzo took part in the session yesterday (Monday),’ our head coach explained to the assembled journalists inside Stamford Bridge's press room. ‘We have one more session this afternoon and then we will decide what we will do with him for tomorrow.

‘As I said before the Forest game, it [the injury] was not something we had to be overly worried about; it is just to try to protect Enzo and protect any other players we need to protect.'

Maresca was also asked for the latest on Liam Delap, who has been absent since August due to a hamstring injury sustained in our win over Fulham.

‘Liam is very close,' the Blues head coach explained. 'He’s not working with us yet – he’s still out – but hopefully in the next days he can begin taking part in the sessions with us.’

Maresca will be forced to make at least one change to the side that started against Forest, with Joao Pedro suspended against Ajax due to the red card he received against Benfica.

Spanish forward Marc Guiu came off the bench and put in an impressive cameo at the City Ground and Maresca stated that Guiu is in consideration for a starting berth against Ajax, although Academy graduate Tyrique George is also another option available.

‘We have different options, we have one more session this afternoon and then we will decide [who starts],’ Maresca added.

‘We have Marc, we have also Tyrique [George], who has played games as a nine in the past; he did very well previously playing in that role, such as against Benfica.

‘We trust Marc. We trusted him already last year and he was always playing and training with confidence. We gave him some Premier League minutes, which shows we trust Marc. Now he’s with us [following his loan recall] and he’s going to play games for us, for sure.’