EPL: Tuchel uncertain about future fixtures amid Covid-19 outbreak

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said the club would continue to test players for Covid-19 and train for upcoming matches but confessed he had “no idea” if the fixtures would go ahead.

Chelsea had only four outfield players on the bench for the 0-0 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Premier League on Sunday after seven positive cases depleted their squad.

The European champions had asked the Premier League to postpone the Wolves match and now head into the busy run of fixtures around Christmas, when they are scheduled to play four matches in 12 days.

Tuchel said he thought the club had been “very, very responsible” in dealing with the outbreak but was unsure about how the next week would pan out.

“We have no idea what will happen,” Tuchel told reporters at Molineux.

“We will do tests, we will continue to do tests on a daily basis. We will go to training like we did.

“Now we will sit in a bus for three more hours together and tomorrow we will do training and before we will be tested and wait for the result.”

Tuchel reiterated his concerns about the safety of the players given the possibility of more infections as the squad train and travel together.

The German was also worried about the ramifications of having to rush back players from injury due to a lack of players.

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“I understand everybody when they say look they have still 14 players but if you look a bit more into detail … you see Trevoh Chalobah with two training sessions, you see Mateo Kovacic one training session, N’Golo Kante one training session,” he added.

“We were putting a huge risk of health and safety to the players, also physically not only from Covid …”

Chelsea are scheduled to face Brentford in a League Cup semifinal on Wednesday before Premier League matches against Aston Villa, Brighton & Hove Albion and Liverpool.