Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Antonio Rudiger will miss Chelsea’s match against Brentford on Saturday through injury, but Romelu Lukaku is fit.
Rudiger missed Germany’s 4-0 win over North Macedonia on Monday after complaining of a back issue, but national team coach Hansi Flick said at the time that his omission was precautionary.
But, Tuchel has now confirmed that the injury will keep the player out of the game against the Bees, along with Christian Pulisic – while Hakim Ziyech remains a doubt.
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The German coach did provide positive news on Lukaku, who was a doubt for the match after he left the Belgium squad earlier this week due to muscle fatigue.
‘Rudiger is injured. Pulisic is still injured. Ziyech is a doubt, he missed the last two training sessions with a headache. Romelu is fine, doing all the training and will play tomorrow,’ Tuchel told a pre-match press conference.
The London club will also be without Thiago Silva for the derby after the defender played in Brazil’s game against Uruguay in the early hours of Friday morning.
Tuchel said that Silva is expected to arrive back in the country before their game against the Bees, but added that he would not be considered to play thr match.
‘He will be back in the afternoon hopefully, Thiago. We had our talk today about Brentford, he missed all that. So that answers his availability,’ the German said.
The Blues, who find themselves at the top of the Premier League table after seven matches, will hope to have some of their absentees back ahead of a busy week which sees them play Malmo in the Champions League on Wednesday, before a clash against Norwich next Saturday.
