The Blues won well against Leicester at the weekend in the Women's Super League, a match in which Macario made her long-awaited Blues debut and scored.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we have a Continental Tyres League Cup semi-final tie away against our closest rivals in the WSL title race. City won 1-0 at Kingsmeadow when we met last month but Hayes is not looking at tomorrow’s game as a chance for revenge.

‘This is not Star Wars. This is no Death Star-destroying moment,’ she insisted at her pre-match media conference.

‘Revenge for me is something I don't really think about when it comes to football. What I know is they’re a top team who took points off of us at home, with not a lot between the two sides.

‘It is important the team learns what's most important from the last game, and look at the opportunities that are there for us. That's something we spoke about today as a team and we trained on a couple of things.

‘We have a game plan in mind. We know what we have to execute to be at a better level, particularly going forward, and the dressing room is in a good place. It was a good performance at the weekend and we take that into tomorrow night.

‘I love being in these games and I know the team love being in these situations, so we look forward to it.’

With the Blues aiming to reach the Conti Cup final for the fifth season running, having last won the competition in 2021, Hayes said the squad will be similar to the one for Leicester, although January signing Nathalie Bjorn is cup-tied so unavailable. Lauren James returns after a WSL suspension.

Macario had a debut to remember on Sunday, coming on as a substitute after nearly two years out with injury and scoring inside 10 minutes. As would be expected, she is not ready to start a game yet as her return is carefully managed.

‘She's been playing with the Under-18s, she had some minutes there,’ her manager reported.

‘She'd been training with the squad since the turn of the year so she has been building a solid base. But when you're out that length of time, you have to gradually build. We've almost had to give her a pre-season from January up until this point.

‘She's available again on Thursday and I expect that she will be someone we can go to from the bench.

'I don't think she's quite ready for a start yet and that includes the weekend. But she's getting closer and if she can make an impact from the bench like she did at the weekend, perhaps her role is best served there for now.’

Hayes made it clear after Leicester how pleased the whole camp was for the United States international. And she revealed a nice moment at Cobham when Macario made a point of saying thanks.

‘Today she bought a cake for everyone to celebrate everybody putting up with her. It was a large cake with a big picture of herself on it, I might add, which we had to cut through. But it said thank you for putting up with me during this.

‘It's been a long battle and her team-mates have been tremendous in helping us through that, and people don't see what the medical team and the performance team do.

‘She's someone I wanted to bring to this club and I knew we were taking someone who wasn't 100 per cent fit. Maybe I didn't think it would take this long but she's had setbacks. I'm just delighted she can finally progress her career with Chelsea.’

- With over 25,000 already sold, tickets are still available for Chelsea Women's next home match - a London derby at Stamford Bridge versus Arsenal