Chelsea have no interest in strengthening rivals by offering Hakim Ziyech to Newcastle United. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Speaking in the pre-match press conference (h/t Football.London), Thomas Tuchel has provided concerning injury updates on the Chelsea squad ahead of their match against Luton Town in the FA Cup tomorrow. His side is on the back of a disappointing defeat at the hands of Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final, having lost the game on penalty shoot-outs.
Hakim Ziyech missed the loss to the Reds after he suffered an injury during the 2-0 win against Lille in the Champions League. He had returned to full training ahead of the League Cup final but eventually sat on the sidelines. Now, Tuchel has confirmed that the 28-year-old will be out of contention for tomorrow’s FA Cup fixture as well.
“Hakim is not available tomorrow as he was not available for the final. Unfortunately, he still feels uncomfortable. He was not in team training today, he was one of the guys who will miss the game tomorrow.”
The 48-year-old coach revealed that Reece James picked up another problem after he recently returned from a hamstring issue that saw him miss nearly two months of action. Fortunately for us, the knock is to his shoulder, which has nothing to do with the leg muscle.
“Brilliant form but now with a huge overload on his shoulders. The recommendation was 20 minutes before the match and it was over 70 in a final with extra tension against Liverpool.”
The German boss gave a worrying insight into the squad’s current situation. He has mentioned that multiple players have endured a physical overload. Tuchel also added that there are fresh injuries following the game against Jurgen Klopp’s side.
“We have a lot of players in physical overload and we have some injuries from the match. In the moment it is too much to comment about it, it would be a long list and we need to see. We had training today, the physios and doctors are still working with the players finding out and we can take the last decisions tomorrow morning when we have the departure to Luton and see who is ready to play because we want to be ready to play.”
Andreas Christensen was one of the absentees for the EFL final, having been dealt a minor blow to his Achilles. Cesar Azpilicueta was also forced off in the second half of the game, which forced James to play more minutes than Tuchel would have wanted him to. Perhaps, they could be among the concerns that the boss has expressed in the presser.
Whether Christensen and Azpilicueta would be one of those possible concerns would only be known in due time when the FA Cup match takes place tomorrow. Ziyech’s absence would be a major blow as he was arguably at his best form since joining us after leaving Ajax. He was certainly missed in our loss to the Merseyside club.
James suffering a relapse due to overload on his hamstring would have been the worst scenario. That is not the case so let’s wait and see how his situation develops ahead of the next game. We have constantly suffered from setbacks throughout this season, and injuries have plagued us during that period.
Let’s hope that the “long list” of concerns that the Blues boss mentioned would not be another one of those cases. It remains to be seen whether that will be the case or not in the build-up to tomorrow’s clash. Luton shouldn’t really be a problem for a team of our stature but then again, winning the FA Cup is a realistic goal for us so no game should be taken lightly.
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