Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang travels to Milan after Chelsea axe

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was photographed in Milan on Friday night at the time of Chelsea's 0-0 draw with Fulham.

The Gabonese striker has endured a rather dismal debut season at Stamford Bridge. After being signed on the recommendation of Thomas Tuchel, the German was sacked days after sanctioning the deal and replaced by Graham Potter.

After a bright start with the Blues, Aubameyang's form has tailed off, and it was confirmed on Friday afternoon that he had been omitted from their Champions League squad for the knockout stages.

Aubameyang was then left out of Chelsea's matchday squad to face Fulham at Stamford Bridge, and shortly prior to kick-off, the striker's brother posted a picture of the 33-year-old in Milan with his family.

Potter insisted that the decision to drop Aubameyang was not a personal one and that the striker had handled the news well.

"He's a professional, I understand he'll be disappointed. It was a tough call. Pierre is just unfortunate and he'll be fighting for his place for the rest of the season," Potter said.

"Whichever decision we made there was always going to be conversation about it. It was my decision. You have to make these calls. He's done nothing wrong at all.

"I've got a responsibility to articulate these decisions as well as I can to the player. He's handled it very well, he trained today fantastically."

When asked whether Aubameyang could still feature for Chelsea this season, Potter replied: "Yeah, absolutely. He’s got to train like he did today and be ready to play because football changes quickly, that’s the nature of the game."

However, it is currently unknown whether Aubameyang had Chelsea's permission to leave the country on a matchday.