Game going ahead posed ‘huge risk’ to players – Tuchel

Thomas Tuchel claimed the well-being of his players was put at risk by Chelsea’s game at Wolves going ahead.

The Blues drew 0-0 at Molineux after their request for a postponement was rejected by the Premier League.

Boss Tuchel named just six substitutes, including only four outfield players, and was again without Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi, who recently tested positive for Covid-19.

Tuchel revealed after the match that seven of his players currently have the virus and that Jorginho, who was not in the squad, is being tested and might also have Covid.

Injuries have hampered Chelsea recently too, but it will inevitably be argued by some that they still boast players of obvious quality.

However, Tuchel countered that argument by pointing out that the match going ahead meant some players had to be rushed back from injury, which he suggested put them at risk.

The German said: “I understand everybody when they say ‘Look, they still have 14 players’.

“But if you look a bit more into detail and you check out who the 14 players are you see Trevoh Chalobah with two training sessions, you see Mateo Kovacic with one training session, you see N’Golo Kante with one.

“We were put in a huge risk of health and safety to the players – physically, not only from Covid.”

Chalobah and Hakim Ziyech both went off after picking up knocks.

But Tuchel is hopeful that neither problem is serious.

He said: “With Trevoh, hopefully it’s just painful – at the moment it’s very painful. We still have hopes that it’s not serious. But we need to wait for further examinations.

“For Hakim, I don’t think it’s bad. He got hit on his nerve, it feels like, on his calf. It was tight and he was limping so we had to take him off.”

Chelsea dropping more points leaves them six behind leaders Manchester City, who won 4-0 at Newcastle.

Tuchel was happy with his team’s performance, though, and explained that he was more bothered by points recently dropped at home.

“We struggled in the first half to adapt to Wolves’ shape. The reaction in the second half was very good. It was a very good performance in the second half,” he said.

“We have another clean sheet, so there are a lot of positive things. I’m absolutely OK (with the performance). We could have won it with a bit of luck and a bit more quality.

“The points we dropped today are not the problem. The points that hurt are the points we lost at home against Man U, against Burnley and Everton – these are the six points that hurt and not today.”