Liam Rosenior used his post-match press conference at Charlton Athletic to update on the fitness of Malo Gusto, Reece James and Cole Palmer after the trio missed our trip to The Valley.
Rosenior took charge of his first game as Blues head coach tonight in south-west London and a much-changed XI eased past the Championship side.
Goals from Jorrel Hato, Tosin Adarabioyo, Marc Guiu plus substitutes Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez helped the Blues to a 5-1 victory despite Rosenior making eight alterations to the starting XI that lost to Fulham, as he looks to keep his squad fresh ahead of Wednesday's League Cup semi-final against Arsenal.
Three of the players missing from the squad entirely were Gusto, James and Palmer and Rosenior explained why during his post-match press conference.
He said: 'Malo, Cole and Reece were precautionary today. I don't want to take any risks at this stage of the season.
'They had minor tweaks or knocks from the Fulham game. And I feel like I've got such a good squad here. I don't need to risk their health at the moment.
'We have a huge game on Wednesday. We have a huge game on Saturday [against Brentford]. And I'll check the medical reports tonight and tomorrow morning and see how they are then.'