The game will come too early for the return of Christian Pulisic, while Antonio Rudiger picked up an injury on international duty.
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Chelsea will have noticeable absentees during their trip to Brentford in the Premier League. The game will come too early for the return of Christian Pulisic, while Antonio Rudiger will also miss out after picking up an injury on international duty. Manager Thomas Tuchel, while providing this update on the squad via video link at his pre-match press conference from Cobham, also spoke about Brazilian centre-back Thiago Silva. The national team commitments will also deprive the Blues of Silva.
“He will be back in the afternoon, hopefully safe from this match in Brazil,” Tuchel revealed, as quoted by the club’s website. “We had our talk today about Brentford, we had our tactical training and he missed all that. He played 90 minutes, he has 12 hours of travelling so that maybe gives the answer about his availability.”
The manager also expressed his frustrations with the format of this latest international break. In this break, there were three South American qualifiers for Brazil, and the last of which has made it impossible for Thiago Silva to be involved this weekend.
“Of course I’m not happy but I knew it before so there’s nothing new,” continued Tuchel. “I got used to a lot of stuff in the international breaks and this is how it is nowadays.
“Are we coaches happy about it and the amount of games our players play for their countries? No, we are not. Does anybody ask us? No, also not and does it change anything? Also not so I don’t get down because of this.”
Tuchel did admit that this international break was a little less demanding on his players in terms of match involvement. However, the manager insisted the workload of the top individuals continues to grow and will soon start to impact the fitness and performance.
“This break was a little bit better for us in terms of minutes and management from the players,” he noted. “We also had the chance to give some of our players two days off to rest and to recharge the batteries so this one even felt a little bit better than the last one but the next one is on the horizon. We have now seven games to play and then the guys will go again and keep on playing.
“I don’t like it. I think it’s too many games and too many competitions for the top players in the clubs. The game is for the players and for the spectators, and the spectators want to have the top players on the pitch. They want them fit, healthy, hungry and you cannot always provide it if you play so many games in so many different competitions.”
Rudiger missed Germany’s second game against North Macedonia. His absence means Chelsea’s defensive options will get limited for the weekend clash.
“Toni Rudiger is injured,” said Tuchel. “He came back injured from his national team so is also not available. Christian Pulisic is still injured and not available.”
“We have some doubts with Hakim Ziyech. He missed the last two training sessions with a headache and it seems that he’s not with the squad tomorrow. Romelu is fine. He has been doing all the training sessions and he will play tomorrow.”
