Hiddink: Baba is a gifted player

Chelsea manager Guus Hiddink has showered praise on Ghana defender Abdul Baba Rahman ahead of the club's FA Cup fifth-round game against Manchester City on Sunday.

Baba, 21, joined Chelsea from German side Augsburg last year but has failed to gatecrash into the Blues first XI.

However, he was handed a starting role at left-back on Tuesday when Chelsea succumbed to a 2-1 defeat to PSG in the Uefa Champions League round of 16 first leg tie but his performance didn’t go unnoticed.

“Baba is a gifted player,” Hiddink told reporters. “[He's] tactically good and very calm going forward. He has to focus on his tracking back,” he added.

Baba was adjudged as best left-back after the Champions League games played during midweek by Whoscored.com with an index of 7.61.

He's likely to start this weekend after Kurt Zouma was ruled out of the season with John Terry waiting for a late fitness test before he can be part of the Chelsea squad.