Anyone around west London in need of ringers for their five-a-side team this week? Asking for friends named Raheem, Ben, Romelu, Kepa and Trevoh.

Sterling, Chilwell, Lukaku, Arrizabalaga and Chalobah are among the Chelsea players who have been told they cannot train with the first team at Cobham because they are not in new boss Enzo Maresca’s plans. The first four were signed for a combined £270million. The fifth grew up in the academy.

All are set to train separately until they negotiate an exit which ends their exile, like Armando Broja, who is close to securing a season-long loan to Ipswich.

Sterling has not yet trained with the group, having been granted time to digest being told by Maresca that he can leave. The 29-year-old was at home in London on Wednesday when confirmation came that Pedro Neto, whose £54m signing pushed him further down the pecking order, was taking his No7 shirt.

Commonly known as a ‘bomb squad’, Chelsea’s number of excluded does not stop there. Mail Sport has learned as many as 13 must train in a separate group led by loan technical coach Carlo Cudicini. The other eight are David Datro Fofana, Angelo, Lucas Bergstrom, Deivid Washington, Tino Anjorin, Alex Matos, Harvey Vale and, until his transfer is finalised, Broja.

Raheem Sterling is among the Chelsea players that aren't allowed to train with the squad

It is a mixture of young and old, inexperienced and experienced, some for sale and others available on loan. Despite a claim from Rio Ferdinand that they discovered their fate by email, it is believed all were afforded face-to-face conversations, Maresca insistent that some modicum of respect is shown. That included his sit-down with Sterling.

Mail Sport was at Cobham on Wednesday to watch Cole Palmer and co train. There were 24 players — 20 outfielders and four goalkeepers in Robert Sanchez, Djordje Petrovic, Filip Jorgensen and Marcus Bettinelli — as Maresca led them ahead of facing Swiss side Servette in a Europa Conference League play-off first leg at Stamford Bridge on Thursday night.

They were surrounded by towering trees and high hedges which provide privacy from prying eyes, meaning their castaway colleagues will not be able to look on in envy even if they wanted to.

However, it would be wrong to think the ‘bomb squad’ are completely divorced from everyone at Cobham. Mail Sport knows of at least one member who was mingling in the first-team building on Wednesday, as there is not a total banishment from all areas.

Yet they are set their own schedule, which differs to those whose programmes are shaped around forthcoming fixtures. Wednesday's first team session started at 3pm ahead of Thursday night's 8pm kick-off, for example, and there was no sign of activity elsewhere. There is also no singular pitch assigned to the ‘bomb squad’ as they can take up whichever one is not being used by Chelsea’s academy sides or the women’s team.

They have access to the indoor facilities of the development squad, who are housed in a detached building at Cobham. It is state of the art, but still not where any senior wants to be.

For the homegrown Chalobah it has been a particularly hurtful experience, the 25-year-old having hoped he was in for a breakthrough season until not being taken to the USA last month.

Some supporters feel it is a mistake to try to force the sale of their graduate, much like that of Conor Gallagher to Atletico Madrid. Chalobah is available for £25m, with Crystal Palace and Aston Villa among those keen.

Players’ union the PFA take a dim view of it all, particularly in cases where a player is isolated from his peers, and previously failed to get the Premier League to update their code of conduct.

But Maresca has a skin thick enough to deal with accusations of callousness. He feels he could not give a viable training session involving everyone, a group of 24 being much more manageable.

All this is nothing new, of course. It is nearly 30 years since Gavin Peacock was banished at Chelsea in 1996 when Ruud Gullit was in charge. Maresca insisted on Wednesday he is not being brutal but honest — but the truth can hurt.