Young Chelsea star Kevin De Bruyne is expected to be shunted out of the club on a January loan deal after he was reportedly dropped from their Champions League squad for the trip to Steaua Bucharest.

De Bruyne looked set to play a key role for Chelsea this season when he started their opening league game but now finds himself training with the youth team, according to Matt Barlow of the Daily Mail:

De Bruyne was not in the match-day squad at Tottenham on Saturday and has been told he will be training with the Under 21 squad for the next three days.

Jose Mourinho was unimpressed with his performance in the Capital One Cup at Swindon last week and voiced his concerns on Friday before leaving him out of the derby against Spurs.

According to ESPN, it is the 22-year-old’s attitude that has disturbed Mourinho. The report claims De Bruyne is having difficulties adapting to life at a top club, where he is not an automatic starter.

The Belgian’s expectations would have been raised by starts against Hull and Manchester United, but he has only featured in two other games so far in the campaign.

De Bruyne arrived at Chelsea billed as one of Europe’s top talents, and he has already earned 14 caps for the highly rated Belgium national side.

Sent out on loan last term, he scored 10 goals and created another nine in 33 appearances for Werder Bremen, so there is little mystery as to why he returned to Chelsea with plenty of confidence.

However, Mourinho clearly feels the player is not fighting for his jersey and has acted to send a wake-up call to De Bruyne ahead of Chelsea’s next Champions League encounter.

The Blues have the likes of Willian, Juan Mata, Oscar, Eden Hazard and Andre Schurrle to play behind the striker, so Mourinho can afford to let them fight for places within his side.

De Bruyne has until January to respond to the challenge; otherwise, Barlow predicts he could be sent on loan for the rest of the campaign.

Chelsea are in dire need of a win in Romania, having lost their opening European game at home to Basel.