“Romelu was back”- Tuchel delivers injury update on three Chelsea stars for Crystal Palace clash

Thomas Tuchel gives latest injury update on Chelsea star Romelu Lukaku ahead of Crystal Palace clash

Thomas Tuchel has provided the latest injury update on Chelsea star Romelu Lukaku ahead of the match against Crystal Palace. The FA Cup semi-final fixture will take place on Sunday afternoon at Wembley Stadium as both teams look to get a spot in the final that takes place in May.

Lukaku missed the previous game against Real Madrid with a problem in his Achilles. However, he has returned to training in the build-up to the match against Palace. As such, he could be in contention to feature on Sunday if he does not show any reaction in the coming days.

Speaking in the pre-match press conference (h/t Football.London), Tuchel has also confirmed that the Belgian striker trained with them yesterday. The boss also added that Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi remain the only absentees in the squad at this moment.

“Yeah [everyone is okay], except for Ben Chilwell and Callum Hudson-Odoi, everyone seems to be okay. We still have two more training sessions to go, so fingers crossed it will stay like this. Romelu was back in training yesterday. Let’s see if he has any reaction or not. So, let’s see if everyone is okay.”

Can Chelsea win the FA Cup?

Lukaku’s return would be a boost regardless of his struggles, as he offers us a different type of threat compared to the other forwards. However, he has not achieved full fitness just yet, which means that we need to keep an eye out to see how he responds to the latest training session.

We did well without the 28-year-old against Real in the second leg, even though we lost 5-4 on aggregate in the quarter-final. Hence, there is no need to rush him back as full recovery should be given the utmost priority. That being said, we hope to see him against Palace on Sunday so that the German boss would have more options to choose from.

Chilwell has been ruled out for the remainder of this season quite a while back, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that he is still out with his injury. Hudson-Odoi’s situation is concerning, to say the least, as fans would not have thought that he will be sidelined for this long. The recent presser did not provide any further clarification on his recovery.

Let’s hope that the situation is not bad and Hudson-Odoi can make a return at the earliest. As for our match against the Eagles, we cannot take them lightly in any case. Despite their 2-1 defeat to Leicester City, they are on a fine run of form, having beaten Arsenal and earned a point against Manchester City recently.

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The FA Cup would be our only chance at attaining another title this season. The players must realise the importance of this game and raise their level as they did against Los Blancos. Only time will tell whether we will qualify for the final or not after this Sunday.

The Blues clearly got the ideal draw for this semi-final. With all due respect to the Eagles, they are far away from the level of Manchester City and Liverpool right now. But as we have seen every season, no team can be taken lightly- especially in cup competitions and the Blues will have to take this game as seriously as possible because Patrick Vieira’s men will not be pulling any punches.