Tuchel: I don’t care about our next games, this isn’t safe

THOMAS TUCHEL accused the Premier League of putting his players ‘at huge risk’ by rejecting Chelsea’s request to postpone their clash with Wolves. The 0-0 draw at Molineux saw Chelsea slip six points behind leaders Manchester City yet Tuchel was far more upset that his team had been asked to play at all. Wolves, meanwhile, received their booster jabs after the game, with the entire squad already double vaccinated. Tuchel reported seven cases of Covid-19 among his players, while he also left Kai Havertz out of the squad — but the Premier League ruled Chelsea had enough fit players to fulfil the fixture. ‘We were putting the health and safety of players at huge risk, physically as well as with Covid,’ said Tuchel, who also lost Trevoh Chalobah and Hakim Ziyech to injury yesterday. ‘We can survive a game but eventually we will pay the price — maybe we are paying the price already. It is not safe. ‘I would be not surprised if the next tests show we have more positives. How should it stop if we sit in the bus, have dinners and stay together like nothing happened? ‘We were struggling with the preparation because we had several consecutive days with positive Covid tests. Then we travelled for three hours with the team, we had dinner together and we had another positive test with Jorginho. People are worried because they were on the same bus and had the same dinner. ‘I don’t care so much about the next games. I just care about the next tests and the health of the players. ‘We let Mateo Kovacic play 30 minutes one day after 10 days of Covid. We make him play — who takes responsibility for that? We have Kante for one training session, Chalobah for two training sessions and maybe (he has) another injury. It is like this. We need to keep on going if they say we need to keep going.’ The Blues are due to face Brentford — whose meeting at Southampton at the weekend was postponed due to a Covid outbreak — in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday, yet there are huge question marks over that game, with Tuchel puzzled about whether it can go ahead. On Boxing Day, Chelsea are due at Aston Villa — another match over which there are doubts after Villa’s game with Burnley was called off on Saturday. ‘I have no idea if we are playing this week,’ Tuchel added. With Premier League clubs due to meet today to discuss a pause in the season as Covid cases rise rapidly across the country, Wolves boss Bruno Lage urged the governing body to protect the integrity of the competition. Wolves also have a number of injury problems, with fringe players Fabio Silva and Yerson Mosquera testing positive and Willy Boly, Pedro Neto, Jonny Otto and Hwang Hee-chan still sidelined. ‘If the games are cancelled, we need to take the right and fair decision for everyone, and try to understand why some games are cancelled and some not,’ said Lage. ‘We are playing and we have our problems with injuries — even today Chelsea had more senior players than us. ‘We need to look at these situations and take the best decisions. Then you look at the league table — if some clubs have played much more than others, it becomes hard to understand. ‘The players and I were receiving our boosters after the game. If it’s there, we take it.’