The Blues welcome Matt Beard’s Liverpool to Kingsmeadow on Sunday, with the cup tie to be streamed live on The 5th Stand app and the official Chelsea website, as we look to progress to the last-16 of the competition that we lifted last term.

Hayes will have to do without the services of French defender Perisset and Czech midfielder Svitkova though, with the pair ruled out alongside Harder according to our head coach.

‘Svitkova has been struggling with her knee in recent weeks,’ Hayes confirmed to the media at Cobham.

‘So she’s not available for us this week and Eve Perisset will also be missing for this game. Beyond that it’s just Pernille Harder, who is a long-term absentee with a knee injury, who is out.

‘With Pernille, I don’t know exactly how she’s doing or where she’s at with her recovery at the moment. She’s making progress but we have to give her time to recover and we’ll giver her as long as she needs.’

Emma was also asked whether she was likely to strengthen the squad before the transfer deadline shuts next week, or whether any departures could occur.

‘At the moment, no – nothing to report,’ she stated.

‘I didn’t expect there to be much activity from us and that remains the case.’

Looking a little further ahead, tickets for Chelsea Women’s Champions League quarter-final second leg – which will be played at Stamford Bridge in March – have gone on general sale.

While our opponents are still to be confirmed, Hayes has revealed her joy at playing at the Bridge and hopes to see a bumper-crowd cheering her players on.

‘It’s brilliant when we play at Stamford Bridge,’ Emma added. ‘We like playing there and hopefully we can do it more often going forward.

‘It’s great to build towards that game at Stamford Bridge. Obviously we won’t know our opponents for certain until February 10 but it’s a fantastic opportunity for us to build a home-team advantage.

‘To do that, we have to put as many numbers as we can into the stadium. Whoever we play, it’s going to be a fantastic occasion and it’s something we are really looking forward to.’