Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has discussed N’Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s Covid vaccination status after the pair missed out on the pre-season tour of the United States this summer.
The midfielders did not fly to North America with the rest of their team last week for the pre-season fixtures, instead playing for the development squad against Boreham Wood.
It was revealed that this was due to the fact that neither had the required Covid-19 vaccination status to enter the United States.
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Therefore, Ethan Ampadu, Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, Cesar Azpilicueta and Levi Colwill were the travelling options for central defence.
Chelsea completed the signing of former Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly also, with the Senegal international flying to Las Vegas to join his teammates in pre-season.
Ineligible to feature against Club America in the Blues’ first friendly, which ended in a 2-1 win, Emerson Palmieri also featured on the left side of a back three.
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Koulibaly will likely make his debut against Charlotte FC, or Arsenal, in the Blues’ final two games during their time in the United States.
They will then fly back to England before facing Udinese in a friendly in Italy before the Premier League season kicks off in August.
This is when Kante and Loftus-Cheek will join up with their teammates in preparation for the new season.
Speaking to football.london, Tuchel made an admission regarding the duo and their vaccination status.
He said: "We cannot force. It is at the moment a very normal decision to get vaccinated.
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“Both players took the decision not to. We need to follow the rules – they cannot join us. They know about the consequences. We don’t like it, of course not. We would love to have them here and it's not an ideal solution. Far from ideal.
"But, once the situation is like this, you need to come up with a solution. They have their coaches there, have coaches from us there (with them) who take care.
“They train with the Under-23s and then they go with the Under-19s so as not to be completely out of a group. But it will not compensate. It will not be the same."
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Despite being disappointed to be without his midfielders, Tuchel admitted that due to Kante’s injury record of last season, some time training alone in London could be beneficial for the Frenchman.
"For N’Golo, it is maybe not even the worst thing to do [to stay in England]. We can give him a very, very individualised load. So maybe we can turn a disadvantage into an advantage," he continued.
"I don’t think he, in particular, needs a long time to adapt to our game because N’Golo is N’Golo and everybody is aware he is a key player and needs to be a key player if we want to win big things."
Topics: Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, NGolo Kante, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Football, Premier League
Nick Emms