Maurizio Sarri confident Eden Hazard will stay at Chelsea this season despite Real Madrid interest

Maurizio Sarri is confident star midfielder Eden Hazard will remain at Chelsea this season, insisting the Belgian has not expressed a desire to leave.

Hazard cast his long-term future at Stamford Bridge in doubt after he said he was ready for a change, telling reporters at the World Cup "you all know my preferred destination".

Real Madrid were thought to be that club but, while the Spanish giants prised goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois away from Chelsea, Hazard has remained at Stamford Bridge.

The Belgium international has two years left on his current contract at Chelsea, although the club are hoping to convince the 27-year-old to sign an extension.

Despite foreign clubs still having the opportunity to sign players until the end of August, Sarri believes Hazard will remain a Chelsea player come September.

When asked on Friday whether he was worried about Real Madrid bidding for Hazard, Sarri said: "No, no.

"I have spoken to him very often in the last 10 days, but he has never said to me anything about this. So I am sure that Eden will be with us for this season."

Hazard was only brought on in the final 14 minutes of Chelsea's 3-0 win away to Huddersfield last weekend, but still managed to register an assist for Pedro's goal.

Hazard's Belgian compatriot Kevin De Bruyne suffered a serious knee injury during training this week that will keep him side-lined for three months, but Sarri said he wasn't sure if Hazard needed to be slowly brought back into action over fears of the forward suffering an injury of his own.

When asked if Chelsea needed to manage Hazard's return to action following De Bruyne's injury, Sarri replied: "I don't know. I haven't seen the injury of De Bruyne. I don't know.

In Pictures | Huddersfield vs Chelsea | 11/08/2018

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"But, at this level, players play a lot of games in the season, so I think for them it's very dangerous."