Baba Rahman: Ghana defender dropped from Chelsea’s UEFA Super Cup squad

The UEFA Champions League holders will come up against Villarreal, who won the Europa League, on Wednesday evening.

Rahman has been training very well with the Blues since joining them for pre-season but it appears manager Thomas Tuchel has other ideas.

The 27-year-old featured prominently during the club’s pre-season matches and even recorded an assist in their 2-1 win against Bournemouth.

However, the Tuchel picked left-backs Ben Chilwell and Marcos Alonso ahead of the Ghanaian in his squad to face Villarreal in the Super Cup.

Rahman spent half of last season on loan at Greek club PAOK Thessaloniki, whom he helped to win the Greek Cup.

The defender was on a promising career path when he joined Chelsea from Augsburg in 2015 for a fee in the region of £23 million.

However, after struggling for game time, Rahman was loaned out to Bundesliga side Schalke O4 for the 2016-17 season after the arrival of Antonio Conte.

A series of niggling injuries prevented him from playing consistently and he has managed less than 40 club matches in the last 24 months.

Despite now returning to full fitness, the former Dreams FC and Asante Kotoko rearguard looks set for another loan spell after being excluded from Chelsea’s Super Cup squad.

See the Blues’ 24-man squad for the UEFA Super Cup below:

GOALKEEPERS: Kepa Arrizabalaga, Marcus Bettinelli, Édouard Mendy

DEFENDERS: Antonio Rüdiger, Andreas Christensen, Thiago Silva, Kurt Zouma, Trevoh Chalobah, Marcos Alonso, Ben Chilwell, Reece James, César Azpilicueta, Emerson

MIDFIELDERS: Jorginho, N’Golo Kanté, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Mateo Kovačić, Mason Mount

FORWARDS: Tammy Abraham, Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Christian Pulisic, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Hakim Ziyech