Outside of Benoit Badiashile himself, who will be delighted to get back to the pitch, perhaps nobody will be as overjoyed at his return as Levi Colwill. With Thursday night football back on the agenda for Chelsea from this week, the sight of Badiashile in team training is a good one.

He has been out for over three months with a hamstring injury. So much time has passed that it is easy to forget just how things have changed since he last appeared.

Badiashile was moved at half-time from being the central centre-back in possession away to Tottenham after a turbulent 45 minutes. He was much more at ease after the break and a 4-3 comeback win cemented Chelsea into second.

Since then they have been on a slump, only showing brief signs of getting matters back on track. Badiashile has been on the grass at Cobham on his own for a number of weeks now, football.london understands, but has since been with his teammates ahead of an anticipated full recovery sooner rather than later.

It comes at a crucial point of the season for Chelsea and Enzo Maresca. Conference League football will test the squad in new ways after a large portion of the preferred midweek XI departed in January. It has left less room for rotation and therefore causes a significant selection conundrum.

One player yet to make their European debut for Chelsea despite participation in the Conference League this season is Colwill. He was one of many established first-team players who went totally unused by Maresca in the group phase as a means to being rested and protected.

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Exits for Renato Veiga and Axel Disasi have left Maresca without as many defensive options heading into Thursday's trip to Copenhagen though and Wesley Fofana has not been added to the squad for the knockout stage as his fitness is carefully managed.

It leaves Colwill as one of few available centre-backs, especially with Trevoh Chalobah out through injury for now and Badiashile only just on his way back. Ishe Samuels-Smith is the closest youth player in a position to be promoted but he is yet to make this debut.

Maresca, therefore, must make a call on Colwill. He has had a funny season for Chelsea after all and could do with a rest more than most.

On the one hand, Milos Kerkez is the only player younger than him - 22 and seven days at the time of writing- to have played more league minutes. He has gone from being a strange part of Mauricio Pochettino's often lop-sided defence to the absolute centre of Maresca's. For a player of his age, it is a big step to take.

Colwill has been tasked with becoming a leader in a team severely lacking them. With Reece James out and Chalobah only returning in January, Colwill has been left to do a lot of the heavy lifting in this regard. He has lost his main partner for an extended period and the structure in front of him has rarely offered much protection outside of Moises Caicedo.

Tosin Adarabioyo has proven valuable but not a major upgrade on Chalobah from last season next to Colwill and it has left the Cobham graduate to be the senior player in a backline in which he is actually the youngest. Marc Cucurella is 26, Adarabioyo is 27, Chalobah and James are 25, Fofana is 24. Colwill celebrated his 22nd birthday the day after beating Southampton last week and hasn't been helped by the goalkeeping uncertainty behind him.

In the midst of all this, he has only failed to feature in two of 27 league games so far, missing one with an injury and the other when rested in a win over Southampton. During the other matches he has played every single minute. Already he has played 500 more than he did last season when an injury ended things prematurely.

At the current rate he will play more than in the two previous years combined and Colwill is also set to surpass the most minutes played in a senior season to date which he recorded in 2021/22 when on loan at Huddersfield in the Championship as an 18-year-old. It shows just how much he continues to rise.

Nevertheless, despite being a fixture in English football for two-and-a-half years now, Colwill is still completing a role which very few players of his age do. It is telling that mistakes have cropped up recently as well, be it via poor passing, aerial troubles, or positioning issues.

Part of the risk that Chelsea take with the youth recruitment strategy is of inconsistency and growing pains. Colwill has certainly experienced this but he has also provided plenty of evidence on the upside.

He is the best progressive passer in the backline and is the most comfortable on the ball. Colwill is no slouch and is likely to be on Thomas Tuchel's radar for the national team as well. These are all promising aspects for a 22-year-old centre-back and the return of Badiashile to offer genuine cover will be most appreciated.

If the Frenchman is available to play in Denmark then it could afford Colwill more precious time out of the side. Even with over a week in between matches and Conference League fixtures not posing the most strenuous of tasks, key games against Leicester City and Arsenal to come are the priority for Maresca and keeping Colwill fit in that run will be vital.