Papy Djilobodji not included in Chelsea Champions League squad, Jose Mourinho takes risk with just six defenders

Deadline-day signing will play no part in group stage of the European competition

Surprise deadline-day signing Papy Djilobodji has not been included in Chelsea's Champions League squad submitted to Uefa.

It means the defender, who signed from Nantes in a deal worth around £4m after the Blues failed to convince Everton to sell them John Stones, is not eligible to play in the group stage of the competition.

Djilobodji has been widely viewed as a poor substitute for Stones and it appears Jose Mourinho may agree.

The Chelsea manager opted not to include the defender in his Champions League squad, despite naming just six specialist defenders for the competition.

The Blues will have to make do with Branislav Ivanovic, Kurt Zouma, Abdul Rahman Baba, Gary Cahill, John Terry and Cesar Azpilicueta at the back for the six match group stage.

It's understood that Djilobodji missed out with the Premier League champions already topped out on "non-locally trained players.”

Uefa rules say that clubs can name no more than 25 senior players, with a minimum of eight of those needing to be "club trained" and "association trained" players. Young forwards Bertrand Traoré and Kenedy were given preference over Djilobodji.

Chelsea only named 22 players in their squad, three short of the maximum, due to the lack of eligible players.

Despite concerns that the Blues may be taking a risk with the lack of numbers at the back, they remain strong favourites to progress from their group after being drawn against Dynamo Kiev, Porto and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

FULL SQUAD...

Goalkeepers: Begovic, Courtois, Blackman

Defenders: Ivanovic, Zouma, Baba, Cahill, Terry, Azpilicueta

Midfielders: Fabregas, Ramires, Oscar, Hazard, Mikel, Traore, Kenedy, Matic, Willian

Strikers: Falcao, Pedro, Remy, Costa