Chelsea head educate Thomas Tuchel has found out that attacker Hakim Ziyech and centre-returned Andreas Christensen are doubts to stand Aston Villa on Boxing Day, with the club nevertheless contending with accidents and Covid-19 cases.
Ziyech missed the midweek EFL Cup victory over Brentford after selecting up a knock to his calf towards Wolves ultimate weekend, while Christensen has not featured in Chelsea's remaining 3 suits and is struggling with returned pain.
Elsewhere, Kai Havertz, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Timo Werner stay out having tested high quality for Covid-19. Ben Chilwell is a longer-term absentee with ACL damage.
Speaking in his press convention ahead of the experience to face Villa, Tuchel said: "For Hakim I don't understand, it's very painful. He were given a kick and it's very painful so not numerous time till Aston Villa.
"Andreas got an injection and is likewise very painful inside the lower again. So horrific news that we've struggled with the identical things for several days now and of path we want to be competitive at the identical time.
"Not smooth but we strive to stay high quality and arrive at Aston Villa with complete dedication to the competitions."
Tuchel changed into forced to travel with a depleted squad to for the draw with Wolves on Sunday after the Premier League rejected Chelsea's request to put off the in shape. When asked about festive fixture congestion and the present day coronavirus situation, the German called for the go back of 5 substitutions.
"We had the feeling we had a deadly disease, we wanted to win some time to deal with it mentally and to calm down the team," he stated.
"That changed into not the case. We stay with it and we attempt to be as supportive as possible and we will in no way overlook how privileged we're and what sort of we love what we do and are nevertheless capable of do it. It's combined between all of it.
"On this event I would love to push for 5 substitution as five substitutions were made to protect the players whilst corona popped up and made lifestyles difficult.
