Chelsea's Tuchel says players health being put at risk
Chelsea had only four outfield players on its bench for its 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday after seven positive cases depleted its squad.
Published : Dec 20, 2021 10:31 IST
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said the club would continue to test players for COVID-19 daily and train for their upcoming matches but he has "no idea" if the fixtures will go ahead or not.
Chelsea had only four outfield players on its bench for its 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday after seven positive cases depleted its squad.
Chelsea had asked the Premier League to postpone the game but the request was turned down.
When asked what he thought would happen with their upcoming fixtures, Tuchel told reporters: "I've got no idea.
"We had an idea yesterday evening what is going to happen [a postponement] but that did not happen.
"We will continue to do tests on a daily basis and go to training like we did. We left Kai (Havertz) out against Everton, although we needed him badly ... with a negative test because he had symptoms.
"We left Jorginho out today and it's not even clear until now if he's positive or negative. So we are very responsible with it. Now we will sit in a bus for three hours together and tomorrow we will do training."
Tuchel also expressed concern over having to rush back players from injury due to a lack of available personnel.
"You see Trevoh Chalobah with two training sessions, Mateo Kovacic with one training session, you see N'Golo Kante has one training session," Tuchel said.
"We are putting in a huge risk of health and safety to the players, also physically and not only from COVID-19."
Chelsea will next face Brentford in a League Cup semifinal on Wednesday, before a trip to Aston Villa in the league on Dec. 26.