Frank Lampard reveals how close Billy Gilmour is to first-team return

The Scottish teenager is completing his recovery from a knee injury. He has already played a couple of games at the youth level and will make several appearances more.

"He’s fit again, he played Wednesday night and got good minutes and played well," Frank Lampard told the press about Billy Gilmour.

"I heard he played very and we were very happy with him, and he will play again at the weekend for the Under-23s. He’s fit, but he’s not match-fit. That will be a short period, he’s a generally fit boy.

"He made great strides in a short time last year," the boss added. "I was very confident putting Billy in for a big part of the season from his training. When the time came I possibly held him back sometimes looking back.

"He unleashed himself and put in some really good performances before his injury. So we must put some context on it that he is still a young player.

"We have got competition in the squad in that area, but I’ve got absolute faith in Billy that he’s going to be a big player for us for a long time to come. So I’m really excited to have him back fit."

Billy Gilmour earned some rave reviews in his first season that was unfortunately cut short by a knee injury he suffered back in July.

It would be naive to expect him to be rushed into the first team immediately after the recovery, so it's good to see him playing for the youth teams - even if some of those appearances are extraordinarily short.