November 19, (THEWILL) – After failing to recover from an injury in time for the midday kick-off, Romelu Lukaku has been ruled out of Chelsea’s match against Leicester tomorrow.
The Belgium international is now in a battle to be fit for Tuesday’s Champions League match against Juventus, as well as next weekend’s match against Manchester United.
The return of Mason Mount and Timo Werner, who are both in contention to play at the King Power, has strengthened Thomas Tuchel’s side.
After one last training session this afternoon at Cobham, a final decision on both will be made later today. Although Lukaku returned to exercise this week, Tuchel is adamant about not hastening his return.
“Romelu is very close to team training,” Tuchel assured, “so hopefully he will join the squad on Sunday, let’s see how this works out. He’s pushing hard to try to come back as soon as possible, and we will try on Sunday.
“If everything works out perfectly and he is in team training on Sunday, then on Monday he can maybe join the group on the bench.
“But there are a lot of ‘ifs’, and I don’t want to put pressure on him. He’s putting a lot of pressure on himself. We will not rush things, we will take things seriously as always, we will have lots of talks with the doctors and the physios before we make any decisions.
“If there is something to be decided it’s good, and if so, it will be decided on Monday.”
Since injuring his ankle against Malmo on October 22, Lukaku has not featured for the side. Tuchel had been concerned about the striker’s mental and physical weariness following his participation in the World Cup and a high fixture load for Inter Milan last season.
It showed in his performances as the 28-year-old has gone seven games without scoring for Chelsea.
Mateo Kovacic is also absent due to a hamstring injury he sustained last season. The likely return of Werner and Mount, on the other hand, is welcome news for Tuchel, who has had to deal with a slew of ailments in the attacking third.
The German manager confirmed this saying: “Timo has been in team training since yesterday, so let’s see. We have another training [session] and then we will decide if it makes sense to be in the squad or on the bench.
“I’m confident that Mason is back in training, looking hungry, fresh and in good spirits, but we need to evaluate. He did this week’s training sessions, looks good, but we need to see if he can start, if he can play 90 minutes.”
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
