Chelsea head coach Mauricio Pochettino has revealed that he fully supports Ben Chilwell's visit to Los Angeles.
Chilwell has been sidelined since the end of September after suffering a significant hamstring injury in the EFL Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion.
The England international is now spending an extended period on the sidelines and is not expected to come back into contention until December at the earliest.
However, eyebrows were raised when it was revealed that the left-back was not spending the next phase of his rehabilitation at Chelsea's Cobham training facilities.
Instead, Chilwell has travelled to California for a change of scenery having now been sidelined and recuperating within club grounds over over a month.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Pochettino defended the decision, hinting that it is not always beneficial to keep players in the same surroundings when they are not competing for a place in the team.
The Argentine told reporters, as quoted by football.london: "It was the plan for the club to change the scenario for him because it is a period he needs to be out.
"This happens at different clubs, like (when I was) at Tottenham and Southampton. When there is a long period of recovery sometimes you want to change the scenery for the player.
"To provide, because, to spend 12 hours here every day, it is a fantastic training ground but sometimes the player needs to change the atmosphere to recover in a good way."
He added: "It is difficult to know (his comeback date). He is away from the training ground now and we will wait for him to come back to see the situation. Hopefully he can recover as soon as possible."
Prior to the injury, Chilwell had endured a mixed start to the campaign, making five starts and two substitute outings in all competitions.
When featuring against Brighton, the 26-year-old had been making his first start in three-and-a-half weeks after losing his spot on the left flank.
Pochettino had been using Chilwell in a mixture of positions, sometimes as a left-winger with Levi Chilwell instead getting the nod at full-back. body check tags ::
