Chelsea: Thomas Tuchel rules out 3 more players for Brentford clash

Chelsea are dealing with several injuries and Covid cases ahead of their next Carabao Cup game.

N’Golo Kante returned to the Chelsea lineup in their 0-0 stalemate against Wolves and played for 90 minutes. It was not surprising to see such a gesture from a player like Kante.

However, Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel admits he did not make the best decision, confirming Kante will rest against Brentford.

“What we did with N’Golo Kante for 90 minutes was close to irresponsible,” Tuchel said (via the club’s website).

“Will he be involved against Brentford? Simply no. We cannot do this and I will not do it.

“We will now give him time to recover and prepare for Aston Villa and this is the situation.”

❌ Ben Chilwell
❌ Andreas Christensen
❌ Trevoh Chalobah
✅ Jorginho
❌ N'Golo Kante [rested]
❌ Lewis Baker
❌ Kai Havertz
❌ Ruben Loftus-Cheek
❌ Callum Hudson-Odoi
❌ Timo Werner
❌ Romelu Lukaku

The problems continue for Thomas Tuchel and #Chelsea ahead of Brentford… 🚑 pic.twitter.com/BD40H7XimR
— Absolute Chelsea (@AbsoluteChelsea) December 21, 2021

The Chelsea manager also confirmed Trevoh Chalobah and Mateo Kovacic are major doubts for tomorrow’s game.

“Andreas is very doubtful with injury and the same for Trevoh Chalobah,” Tuchel confirmed. “From the match, we have Chalobah a big doubt. N’Golo Kante and Mateo Kovacic we took a huge risk with, and we now are paying for this. Two matches in one week for them is simply impossible.”

Tuchel will most likely make several changes to the lineup that played against Wolves. Lewis Baker, who has not played for Chelsea for almost eight years, had the chance to play against Brentford. However, he is sidelined after delivering a positive COVID-19 test.

“We made them come for two training sessions but then we detected that Lewis Baker is positive for Covid. Another player out. This is another risk. We blend some squads and now we have another positive.

“The players [with Covid] are okay and this is the most important. They are not back as they have to be out for 10 days before release. This is the concern we have and then they are out, have Covid and we don’t know if they can play or not if it is risky,” Tuchel added.

Following their game against Brentford, Chelsea will play their next Premier League game against Aston Villa on Sunday.