Chelsea will be without Mason Mount for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie with Atletico Madrid after picking up an early booking in Bucharest.
The England midfielder was shown a yellow card inside 35 seconds after bringing down Joao Felix as he bore down on the Blues backline not long after kick off.
Mount was one of four Blues players who were walking a disciplinary tightrope after picking up two yellow cards in the group stage of the competition.
Mateo Kovacic, Hakim Ziyech and Jorginho are the other three. Both Kovacic and Jorginho started for Thomas Tuchel’s side in Romania while Ziyech is on the bench.
UEFA rules state that three yellow cards in the competition equal a one-game suspension, meaning if any of them were to be booked against Diego Simeone’s side they would be forced to sit-out the second-leg in west London.
Kovacic , Mount, Ziyech and Jorginho all picked up two bookings each during the Blues’ group stage campaign, meaning they will have to watch themselves if called upon by Tuchel to feature in Romania.
Fortunately for Tuchel and those in danger of running the risk of facing a ban, the cards system is reset following the last-16 stage, meaning should Chelsea get past Atletico over the two legs and progress to the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time since 2014, the other three in question will be stripped of the yellow cards they have picked up earlier on in the competition and be given a clean bill of health.
In the event of any of those players picking up a red card, or indeed anyone else within the Chelsea squad, they would face the usual sanctions of a ban, even if the Blues do progress to the last-eight of the competition.
The Blues will be hoping to pick up where they left off in the Champions League against Atletico, as they successfully navigated the group stage without suffering the disappointment of a defeat, winning four and drawing two of their six group games.
Atletico, meanwhile, won just two of their group games, drawing three and losing one, which was a 4-0 hammering at the hands of current holders Bayern Munich, who knocked Chelsea out of the competition at this stage last term.