Dynamo Kiev vs Chelsea: Jose Mourinho refuses to confirm if Eden Hazard will return as Pedro and Loic Remy left out

Chelsea will be without summer signing Pedro and striker Loic Remy for their Champions League trip to Dynamo Kiev after suffering minor injuries as manager Jose Mourinho remained tight-lipped over whether he will reinstate Eden Hazard to the starting line-up.

Hazard was left out of the starting line-up in the weekend’s 2-0 Premier League victory over Aston Villa, with the Belgian playmaker being left on the substitutes’ bench for the duration of the match.

However, with both Pedro and Remy unavailable for the match, the likelihood is that Hazard will return to the starting line-up despite being told to up his work rate by the Chelsea manager.

Addressing Pedro and Remy’s absence from the side that will contest the Group G match at the NSK Olimpiysky, Mourinho said: "Nothing important, but [a] big risk for tomorrow.

"We have other options, especially because they are in positions where we have other players."

However, when asked if that means Hazard will return to the first XI, Mourinho refused to reveal his plans as he is yet to tell the players themselves.

"If he plays tomorrow I don't tell you. The players don't know," Mourinho said.

"How did he train? He trained like Eden."

Mourinho was much more open when it came to reports over out-of-form striker Radamel Falcao ending his loan spell early and returning to Monaco. The Portuguese admitted that if Falcao is to break into the starting line-up on a regular basis then he must start out-performing Diego Costa.

"First of all I don't know if it's true. To me he said absolutely nothing in relation to that," Mourinho said.

"I speak with him every day. It's quite strange the press know something I don't know and my club doesn't know. We don't have one single bit of information about it.

"What he has to do is play more? He has to give us more than Diego (Costa).

"We normally play with one striker. I always go for the performance level.

"It's a direct competition between players for one position. The best one plays."

Turning his attentions to the game on Tuesday night, Mourinho admitted that winning the first of two back-to-back European games against Dynamo is pivotal for the Blues’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages after suffering defeat at Porto three weeks ago.

"We need to win matches," Mourinho said. "We just want to win the next match. We don't think about where we are.

"We need to win matches in the Premier League to improve our position. We need to win points in Champions League to qualify.

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"The point is improve results, at the same time improve our game, improve our confidence.

"We have too many bad results since the beginning of the season. Hopefully now we can go in the right direction."

Their task was made a little bit less daunting as Dynamo suffered a first Ukrainian Premier League defeat in 38 matches last Friday as they went down 3-0 to Shakhtar Donetsk, although they have won seven of their last 10 European home games and have lost just once.