Christian Pulisic will miss Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal on Sunday after testing positive for COVID-19, manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.
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Christian Pulisic will miss Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday. Pulisic tested positive for COVID-19, head coach Thomas Tuchel has confirmed. The 22-year-old tested positive on Wednesday and subsequently missed Chelsea’s open training session in front of supporters at Stamford Bridge. He now needs to isolate for a minimum of 10 days in line following the UK Government guidelines.
Thomas Tuchel announces that Christian Pulisic has tested positive for COVID-19 pic.twitter.com/Y6td9rk9GU
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Speaking ahead of the game against Arsenal, Tuchel told reporters. “Christian (Pulisic) is unfortunately pretty easy to explain: he had a positive test and needs to follow the protocols. He’s not in training and not available for the game (against Arsenal).”
The USMNT international started for Chelsea in their 3-0 win against Crystal Palace in the club’s Premier League season-opener last Saturday. Pulisic also scored the second goal of the game before being substituted for Kai Havertz in the 82nd minute.
Earlier in August, he became the first American international to both play in and win the European Super Cup. Chelsea won the penalty shoot-out victory against Europa League holders Villarreal.
Chelsea’s next fixture is against Liverpool following the Arsenal derby. Pulisic should be out of isolation before the match at Anfield, however, his involvement would be unclear due to the extremely short gap.
Pulisic trained fully on Tuesday with the rest of the side before being absent on Wednesday at the open training session at Stamford Bridge.
Meanwhile, Chelsea were handed a boost with duo Hakim Ziyech and N’Golo Kante set to be available for the weekend.
“Hakim and N’Golo are in training and did everything until yesterday to be in training today, and had no problems,” added Tuchel.
“We need another more physical and intense training session with them and the team to decide after the training session at 11. It seems very positive that both can be in the squad for Sunday.”
Tuchel has said that Romelu Lukaku is likely to make his second Chelsea debut after returning to the club this summer.
When asked about the likelihood of Lukaku featuring for the Blues on Sunday, he said: “We have one more training session to go but the week was a heavy load. He was with the group with the late starters, so it was an overload week so far.
“Today was low intensity and tomorrow we will have an important session before the match. We hope he will be on the pitch on Sunday and it looks likely.”
He also explained how he hoped Lukaku would be the missing piece of the Chelsea jigsaw. He said: “I believe everyone needs a role.
“The guys who left us played an important role in the last campaign and it’s not nice to let them go. But it sometimes important because everyone needs a role and a situation that needs fighting for.
“Is Romelu the missing piece? We hope but at the same time we try to find solutions to any questions asked in games.
“We want still have a strong squad and a squad that makes a team effort. Romelu is that kind of personality and profile that we were missing up front. From now, it’s our job to push ourselves to the limit.”
