Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca has confirmed he "likes" Marc Guéhi as a player but has played down talk of an imminent move for the Crystal Palace defender.
ESPN reported earlier this week that Chelsea are monitoring Guéhi, who spent the majority of his youth career at the west London club and has entered the final 18 months of his contract at Selhurst Park.
With Chelsea lacking options in defence after Wesley Fofana's injury, a January swoop has also been mooted -- although Maresca said he has several options, including from within the Chelsea squad and across Europe.
"The only thing I can say is Marc Guéhi is a Palace player," Maresca said on Friday. "I like Marc for sure, but he is not our player.
"I also like the centre-halves we have and I like different central defenders in Italy, Spain and France but that doesn't mean we are going to buy the player.
"It is a normal situation when you have these central defender injuries that there's speculation there. There's nothing there."
Chelsea have also been reported to be considering recalling fellow centre-back Trevoh Chalobah from his loan spell at Palace.
"This is exactly the same," Maresca added. "Trevor is a good player but in this moment is a Palace player. So, we'll see."
Several Premier League clubs have been tracking Guéhi and Palace rejected multiple bids from Newcastle in the summer.
Maresca, meanwhile, confirmed that he is planning to leave both Ben Chilwell and Cesare Casadei out of the Chelsea squad this weekend for the visit of Morecambe in the FA Cup third round.
"Chilwell I think is thinking in this moment he is probably going to leave so it's better to avoid to use him to avoid this kind of situation, injury or those kind of things," Maresca said of the England international.
"It's more or less the same [for Casadei]. In this moment, the plan is to not allow him minutes in case there is an opportunity for him to go and play."
