Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi have all been left out of the team-sheet to play Everton on Thursday night after returning positive tests.

The west Londoners already have Mateo Kovacic in isolation after he tested positive for Covid last week – with Thomas Tuchel’s plans serious disrupted for the Stamford Bridge clash.

Ben Chilwell, who is currently out with a knee injury, has also returned a positive test.

Kai Havertz meanwhile has been left out of the squad, as he awaits test results.

It comes amidst news of match postponements and players missing games due to positive tests across the rest of the league.

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel told BT Sport ahead of the game: “Except for Kai Havertz, we have positive cases and Kai feels unwell and are waiting on test results.

“We did some extra tests at 12:00 GMT today and who arrives at lunch, from there we had to pick the team. The situation started yesterday. The results are the results and we still have a strong squad that should still be able to compete. We focus on the guys that are there.

“I did not lose my concentration, at some point it is getting difficult and with the overuse of players.”

Fears have emerged over the Chelsea-Everton with reports claiming that the Stamford Bridge club have had at least four players, not including Mateo Kovacic, test positive for Covid-19 in the last 24 hours.

Goal reveals that Chelsea are currently testing the squad who have been in close contact with the players who have already tested positive for COVID-19. There could be more positive tests before kick-off vs Everton tonight.

But, according to the Evening London Standard, the game is still due to go ahead despite fresh cases of Covid among the first-team squad at Chelsea.

It is understood a “small number” of players tested positive on Wednesday, joining Kovacic in isolation.

That immediately threw the game with Everton into doubt, with the football calendar rapidly being impacted by the spread of Omicron.

But the situation at Chelsea is not considered an outbreak because there were no new cases during testing on Thursday morning.

It is understood that it takes two consecutive days of positive cases for an outbreak to be declared, with Chelsea having no fresh cases since Wednesday.

But doubts will still remain given the rapidly changing situation at clubs.

There are growing fears the Premier League will have to shut down due to the failure to control Omicron.

Tottenham had games against Rennes and Brighton postponed last week after an outbreak among staff and first-team players.

Manchester United shut down first team operations this week, leading to the calling off of their visit to Brentford.

And late on Thursday Burnley’s clash with Watford became the latest to be postponed.