Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri has said that N’Golo Kante and Eden Hazard are not capable of playing many games in a season.
Both Hazard and Kante played the majority of their countries’ Euro 2020 qualifiers in the international break.
And the 60-year-old believes he has to protect his star duo ahead of the run-in in the race for the top four.
“At the moment, Kante has played 50 matches this season and Hazard 47,” Sarri told Sky Sports.
“They played with the national team, Hazard for 187 minutes and Kante for 175. I think it is time to rest.
“I know very well Kante and Hazard are important players for us, I know they cannot play 70 or 75 matches in the season.”
He also explained the continued absence of Callum Hudson-Odoi from the starting line-up, with the exciting teenager still yet to make a Premier League start under Sarri, who has favoured Pedro and Willian ahead of him in the pecking order.
“Callum is always in my mind and I have to decide the starting XI but today I want to put him in the [position] to change the starting XI in the match on Wednesday [against Brighton].
“I don’t know [if he could replace Hazard] but I had – for all the international break – Pedro and Willian in training and I thought that it was right to start with them.”
Sarri also shared his thoughts on his side’s top-four bid and their recent poor away form.
“Every match, of course, is an opportunity and a risk at the moment.
“At the moment we are mentally vulnerable, so it’s a risk, but it’s also an opportunity because our potential is good.
“We will try [to amend our away form], of course, but it’s very strange, because at the beginning of the season we did better away than at home, so suddenly at the beginning of 2019 we changed.
“It’s very difficult for me to explain why. It’s very difficult for the players to explain why [to me], but we are trying to change, of course.”
Meanwhile, former England international Jamie Carragher has blasted Sarri after the Italian admitted he didn’t watch the full game when Callum Hudson-Odoi made his first start for the Three Lions of England during the last international break.
He said: “This is a lad who is making his international debut. Why are you not watching the full game? You could argue he’s watching a load of his other Chelsea team-mates, flicking the channels, whatever. You don’t need to watch them.
“They’re all 27, 28, 29… this is a young kid. Can he handle the spotlight of playing for England?
“This is a lad I’m trying to keep at my club. So to then just dismiss this lad’s international debut, which is probably the biggest thing that’s ever happened to him as a footballer at a young age, to just dismiss it and say the 20 minutes I did watch he didn’t even play well.
“I could imagine people above Sarri shaking their heads and thinking,
“Why did you say such a stupid thing in a press conference? We are trying to get this lad to sign a contract!”