Chelsea news: Romeo Lavia the highlight, but how many minutes did 11 Blues players rack up on international duty?

In stark contrast to recent seasons, Chelsea only had 11 first-team players who have been on international duty in recent weeks.

Injuries and fitness issues involving the likes of Moises Caicedo, Cole Palmer and Joao Pedro led to some senior stars enjoying a rest period, rather than playing up to four matches over a 10 or 11-day period.

Xabi Alonso, in some cases, would have preferred certain key players to have spent time away from the pitch, but it is fair to say that the international period seems to have benefitted Chelsea instead of being detrimental.

Here, Sports Mole takes a look at how many minutes Chelsea's international representatives racked up over September and October.

Lavia, Estevao the Chelsea highlights from international duty

The undoubted highlighted has been Romeo Lavia accumulating 217 minutes across four matches for Belgium, including making two starts versus France.

Even in defeat, Lavia was influential in both games. Belgium conceded the only goal of the match after his withdrawal in the first, while he provided the line-breaking assist as his nation took the lead in Paris earlier this week before losing by a 4-1 scoreline.

Alonso will now hope that the injury-plagued 22-year-old can recover well for Saturday's showdown with Bournemouth.

Estevao Willian, who has struggled for game time under Alonso, featured for 172 minutes in three matches for Brazil, with a goal and an assist being recorded in the final fixture versus India.

Despite an indifferent start to life at Chelsea, Maxence Lacroix completed the 90 minutes on three occasions for France, two of which came against Lavia's Belgium.

However, he was arguably at fault for the goal that came from Lavia's assist, the centre-back stepping up and allowing Dodi Lukebakio to sprint in behind him.

Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez kept clean sheets in each of his three starts for Argentina, including in Lionel Messi's final game versus Benin on Tuesday night.

Morgan Rogers posted one goal and one assist from 220 minutes for England, the attacker featuring on the right flank and providing a sublime first-time delivery for Harry Kane's first goal versus Czech Republic at Wembley Stadium.

Meanwhile, Pedro Neto earned 258 minutes across three games for Portugal before being rested for their final UEFA Nations League contest.

With October 1 being his last appearance, the winger will be well rested for the weekend.

Valuable Portugal minutes for Quenda

The same can be said for Josh Acheampong, who completed the 90 minutes for England Under-21s on two occasions before he remained as an unused substitute versus Republic of Ireland on Tuesday.

Also at Under-21 level, Geovany Quenda can only have benefitted from 168 minutes across three matches for Portugal.

On the back of his substitute outing versus Brentford before the international break, the versatile wideman has brought himself into contention for the weekend.

Chelsea's three negatives from international duty

Jorrel Hato will be disappointed to only have earned 32 minutes across Xavi's first four matches in charge of Netherlands.

Valentin Barco also only accumulated 55 minutes for Argentina and remained on the bench for Messi's last game.

However, he did provide an impressive assist in the second match versus Burkina Faso.

Owing to injury, goalkeeper Mike Penders missed Belgium's opening two UEFA Nations League matches, before remaining as an unused substitute upon his return.