SOMETIMES it can be difficult for footballers getting back into the swing of things after an international break.

But that is what Blackburn's players must do ahead of arguably the most difficult fixture in the Premiership calender this Saturday - away to Chelsea.

Players want to reach the very highest level, and to get there they have to pay some consequences.

But travelling around the world for your country has almost become second nature to top players.

It can often mean just getting about two hours kip before arriving back for training. But they are all professionals.

You can feel absolutely shattered coming back to your club side.

Sometimes, I would arrive back after a Scotland game in the early hours of the morning after a Wednesday night game.

We could fly into Glasgow before travelling back down to Blackburn. I'd only have three or four hours sleep before I was in training the next day.

We'd have a short training session and then I'd get myself back home on the Thursday afternoon. But by Friday, I'd be feeling refreshed and ready for the weekend's game.

Brett Emerton will probably have the furthest to travel this week, and he may end up getting back to Blackburn on Friday.

But Brett's been and done it before playing for Australia so many times. I'm sure he will be as ready and prepared as the rest of the Rovers squad for Saturday's huge game at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea lost to Aston Villa 2-0 last week, but they are still a fantastic side.

People were running scared of them when they spent millions of pounds on world class players.

But other teams know what they are all about now, and Chelsea have started to show little weak spots.

That sometimes happens and they've had the pressure of being champions in the last few years.

They've not been beaten at Stamford Bridge for a long time - that's a fantastic record they've had since Jose Mourinho has been in charge.

But all records are there to be broken and hopefully Blackburn can be that team to break it.

In the past, it's tended to work the other way around for Rovers.

When we've come up against teams who are struggling to win, they've tended to end their barren spell against us.

It's about time someone looked down on Rovers and helped them break Chelsea's unbeaten run.

On their day, Blackburn can win this one, and it wasn't too long ago that Rovers were among Chelsea's bogey sides.

I'm sure Mark Hughes will set out his side to play 4-4-2, but with a defensive, counter-attacking game, and try to catch Chelsea on the break.

It's a difficult task facing Rovers, but they must go down to London with plenty of confidence.