Since suffering a nasty ankle injury against Malmo in October, Lukaku’s return to the Chelsea team has been carefully managed by Thomas Tuchel. He started last week’s draw in St Petersburg but otherwise has been used as a substitute by our boss, who said yesterday he believes Lukaku is now ready to play 70 minutes or more.

Tuchel has regularly acknowledged Lukaku’s desire to return to the pitch as soon as possible while underlining the importance of not rushing his comeback following the moment that pressed pause on his second spell as a Chelsea.

‘It was very frustrating,’ said Lukaku.

‘In the game I was doing well, but that’s football. Luckily the injuries I have had throughout my career have been contact injuries. I really look after myself and do the right things to be available all the time.

‘It was a bad tackle, but it could have been much worse. The first week coming back on the training pitch was a little bit tough. You run a bit different, but after that once you are confident again you take it onto another level.

‘I’m feeling back to my best and now it’s up to the manager to make a decision. For the last 10 days I’ve been 100 per cent. I just keep on working on the training ground, showing myself every day, and I’m waiting for my chance now.’

Should that come tonight, Lukaku will be doing his utmost to inflict more pain on Benitez’s Toffees, who have won once in their past 10 league outings. Lukaku puts that run of form down to injuries and believes they would be much higher up the table if it wasn’t for that.

As for Benitez, there was a chance he could have worked with him during the second half of the 2012/13 campaign. Lukaku takes up the story.

‘I met him once. I was on loan at West Brom when he came in, but he wanted to bring me back in January. I had this clause in this contract where I could come back in January.

‘At the time I was doing quite okay at West Brom, I was 19, and I was coming off a year where I had barely played. I was getting minutes at West Brom and scoring goals.

‘It was a moment where the club were thinking about my development instead of bringing me back and playing second fiddle. If you see how the season went, Chelsea went on to win the Europa League, and I scored 17 goals in my first full year in the Premier League as a 19-year-old. It was good for both sides.’

The following season Lukaku departed on loan to Everton, where he also thrived, before sealing a permanent move to Goodison Park ahead of the 2014/15 season.

‘I had very good years over there,’ he reflected.

‘Everton were very important for me in my formation as a young footballer. They gave me the opportunity to put myself on the map in the Premier League. The fans are brilliant, playing at Goodison was very good for me, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

‘It was very important for me to be at a place where I could get minutes and learn the game. Everton gave me that freedom. It will be good to see those people again, some of the players and members of staff who are still there, and greeting the fans will be good.

‘For us, this period is going to be very important,’ continued Lukaku, turning his attention to the Blues.

‘If you do well, you know it’s going to be good for us when we get to January and play our direct opponents. That’s when we have to make sure we at our best.’