Thomas Tuchel has revealed Chelsea’s new target for the return of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner is after the international break in November.
Both players went off in the first half of last week’s 4-0 win over Malmo in the UEFA Champions League and have missed the victories over Norwich and Southampton.
The strikers are already out for this weekend’s clash with Newcastle, the second group match against Malmo and a league matchup at home to Burnley.
While Tuchel revealed that a new ‘realistic’ target for their comeback is after the international break, Pulisic is expected to back for the Burnley game.
‘Better news than ahead of Southampton,’ Tuchel told a press conference on Friday. ‘Of course, Timo and Romelu are still out. ‘Christian Pulisic joined training but it’s still too early given the time that he missed.
‘I’m not a friend of deadlines and putting pressure on expectations. But I can tell you that it is realistic that their [Lukaku and Werner’s] new target is after the international break, this is what we and they aim for.
‘For Pulisic we are looking at the Burnley match. If everything goes alright he should be ready to play.’
There was positive news on other members of the team, with previous doubts over players like Loftus-Cheek, N’Golo Kante and Cesar Azpilicueta allayed.
But, key Chelsea midfielder Mateo Kovacic suffered a hamstring injury in training on Thursday and is likely to be back after the November internationals.
‘Everybody else is available,’ said the German boss. ‘Azpi was back on the pitch, Ruben [Loftus-Cheek] is back on the pitch, NG [Kante] is back on the pitch. They are with the team tomorrow and ready to play.’
‘Very sad news yesterday,’ Tuchel added on Kovacic. ‘He suffered a hamstring injury in training and will be out for some weeks.
‘He will be out for the next week for sure, and then comes the international break so it will be a minimum of these weeks. Hopefully, after that he can be back. ‘He injured his hamstring doing a little bit too much in training, so my fault.’
