Avram Grant maintained yesterday that Ashley Cole is in the right frame of mind to return to the Chelsea squad after being the subject of salacious headlines in a torrid few days, but the first-team coach warned all his players that how they conduct themselves off the pitch is just as important as how they perform on it.

Grant is not thought to have fined Cole after the revelation of a drunken night out, although he has taken the opportunity to remind his team-mates of their responsibilities.

Whether Diego Maradona passed on the same message when he visited the club’s training ground on Monday is not clear. Grant said: “I choose players that I like, but I want them also with a good head on their shoulders. They need to be professional. A professional is just not what you think, a professional also is a state of mind. It’s not just if you drink or you don’t drink, this is obvious; it’s many things about players, how you look at the game, how you look forward, if you live in the past too much. It’s very important what you have in your head.

“In football you need to choose players not just based on their quality but their character. I say to my players that I test them how they behave on the very good days, whether they still want to learn, whether they still want to focus or if they think they know everything. And also on the very difficult days, do they take responsibility or say everyone else is to blame? And do they learn from this?”

Cole’s wife, Cheryl Tweedy, the pop star, has spent the past few days examining his behaviour in the light of allegations of marital indiscretions, but Grant believes that the player is ready to put such turmoil behind him.

The 27-year-old has trained fully for the past two days after reporting late for a session on Friday and being left out of the FA Cup fourth-round win away to Wigan Athletic on Sunday, and he is ready to return against Reading this evening.

Grant even expects Cole to be named alongside Wayne Bridge, his club-mate, in Fabio Capello’s first England squad for next week’s friendly against Switzerland.

“There’s no problem,” Grant said. “He’s a full professional, he’s ready, but I am trying to rotate the players and keep them fresh because we have a lot of games. You can have a player who is injured now because they played too much one or two years ago. You need to keep your body fresh.

“Capello needs to take Bridge and Cole because they are the best two English left backs in the country.”

Paul Jewell joked that he would confiscate Andy Appleby’s passport if the new Derby County chairman maintains his 100 per cent success rate in watching the Premier League’s bottom club when he stays for the game against Manchester City tonight (Peter Lansley writes). Having completed his $120 million (about £60.5 million) takeover this week, the American admitted that he has watched Derby in the flesh only once - the team’s sole victory, over Newcastle United, in September. Appleby is planning to commute from the United States to watch his new club in action, but Jewell said: “If we beat City, I don’t think I will let him out of the country.”