Injury headache for Chelsea ahead of Brentford clash as Thomas Tuchel confirms stars set to miss out
Thomas Tuchel is facing a selection headache ahead of Chelsea‘s return to action after Brentford on Saturday.
Premier League action will resume this weekend after the international break, but Chelsea could miss four key players for their trip to the Brentford Community Stadium.
The big news is that Antonio Rudiger will miss out after he came back from the German national squad with a back injury.
Chelsea defenders Antonio Rudiger and Thiago Silva are set to miss the clash with Brentford
Defensive partner Thiago Silva is fit but is unlikely to play as he travels back from Brazil today.
Ahead of Chelsea’s game against Brentford, the German manager said: ‘In the afternoon hopefully Thiago will arrive safe from his match in Brazil.
‘We had our talk today (with the team) about Brentford, we had our tactical training today. He missed all of that.
Thomas Tuchel confirmed Chelsea could be without four players for the trip to Brentford
Christian Pulisic is still recovering from an ankle injury he suffered on duty with the USA
‘He played 90 minutes, he has 12 hours of travelling. So that maybe is the answer about his availability, he is not.
‘Antonio Rudiger is injured – he came back injured from national team so he’s also not available.
‘Christian Pulisic is still injured and we have doubts with Hakim Ziyech, he missed the last two training sessions with a headache and seems like he’s not with the squad tomorrow.’
Veteran defender Silva started for Brazil in their 4-1 victory over Uruguay, which kicked off at 1.30am UK time on Friday morning.
Rudiger meanwhile played Germany’s first game of the international break against Romania but was left out of their trip to North Macedonia after suffering a back injury.
Hakim Ziyech has missed training sessions with a ‘headache’ and is also a doubt for Saturday
Injuries to both centre-backs present Chelsea with a headache in defence on Saturday. Cesar Azpilicueta could move inside to centre-back while Trevoh Chalobah could get another start.
Silva is expected to return for the Champions League game against Malmo but there has been no confirmation on how long Rudiger is likely to be out of action.
Pulisic meanwhile has been out of action since he suffered an ankle injury with the United States during the international break in September.
Romelu Lukaku will be available after he pulled out of international duty with Belgium
Ahead of Chelsea’s victory over Southampton at the start of the month, Tuchel said in regards to Pulisic: ‘There is still a lot of pain that he has to get used to and it’s too much to start training with us, so he’s still in individual rehabilitation.’
There was some positive news for Chelsea however as Tuchel confirmed Romelu Lukaku should be available for the clash against Brentford.
The £97.5m signing withdrew from duty with Belgium due to muscle fatigue but has returned to training with Chelsea.
