The Chelsea number 10 was not in the matchday squad at Eden Park, but the head coach was able to provide some reassurance over her condition, bearing in mind our Women’s Champions League third qualifying round matches due to be played on 27 August and 2 September.

‘Yeah, she's fine,’ Bompastor said. ‘It's just a little bit of management. It's important to have everyone ready for the Champions League game, which is coming soon.

‘Maybe today it was not appropriate for her to feature and to get some minutes, but she trained yesterday, and she's fine.’

Chelsea have brought in Guilia Dragoni, Nelly Las, Katie McCabe, Manaka Matsukubo and Melvine Malard during the summer transfer window, and the head coach discussed why she places high importance on the quality of the squad.

Actively welcoming difficult decisions over team selection, Bompastor has always stated the need for depth in the side as matches come thick and fast once the season begins.

‘You need to have a good balance in your squad in terms of quality, but also numbers,’ she continued. ‘We play in so many competitions. All our players are international players, so they play so many games during a season.

‘It's important for us in order to go as far as possible in every competition to have an appropriate squad in terms of quality and numbers.

‘For me, it's good when I have some headaches, when I have to make my starting eleven. The competition in our squad is a healthy competition, and that's important.

‘I always said I prefer to be in the position of having some headaches to select the players because it means I have a lot of quality rather than looking for players and options. I told my players already, I want to be a place where they give me those headaches, and I'm fine with that.’

The Blues have received the warmest of welcomes in New Zealand, and more than 15,000 supporters turned out to see Chelsea play at Eden Park on Saturday.

Bompastor was delighted to see so many passionate supporters on the other side of the world from Stamford Bridge and urged her players to soak it all in.

'It’s always a pleasure to have that many people who are coming to watch the game,' she said. 'I think when you are a player, but even the staff and the coach, you really enjoy spending time on the pitch and also at the end of the game sharing those moments with your fans.

'That’s why we do this job, and we need to enjoy those moments. We play because at the end of the day, we want to celebrate with them. We want to enjoy winning and we want to make the fans happy.'