Cesar Azpilicueta 'has already extended Chelsea deal'

Chelsea have reportedly already been able to prevent Cesar Azpilicueta from departing Stamford Bridge on a free transfer this summer.

Throughout this campaign, the future of the club legend has been a hot topic of debate, particularly more recently after completing the set of trophies to be won at the Premier League outfit.

The perception has been that Azpilicueta currently has under four months remaining on his existing terms, a scenario which has led to strong interest from Barcelona.

However, according to AS, the versatile defender has already had 12 months added to his deal having played a set amount of fixtures this campaign.

The report claims that Azpilicueta needed to play 30 games in order to instigate an automatic renewal, and that option was seemingly activated when he featured in the Club World Cup final on February 12.

As a result of government-imposed sanctions on Thursday, Chelsea are no longer able to negotiate new contracts, which would have meant that Azpilicueta would be pushed towards the exit door.

The deals of Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger are also set to expire on June 30.