Thomas Tuchel has confirmed Chelsea’s Antonio Rudiger could return from his injury in time for the club’s training on Tuesday.
Rudiger, who missed Sunday’s 1-0 win over West Ham in the Premier League, doesn’t miss too many games.
Unfortunately, it’s been confirmed today by Tuchel that £100,000-a-week star Rudiger won’t be a Chelsea player next season.
The 29-year-old will officially leave Stamford Bridge this summer when his Blues contract expires at the end of this campaign.
He’s won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup since moving to West London in 2017, so is going to be remembered extremely fondly by the Blues fanbase.
It does leave a major question mark over how the club go about replacing him, though.
Tuchel delivered an injury update on Rudiger after the West Ham victory.
“The injury of Toni, in one leg it’s the groin and the other a bit the hamstring. He is somebody that plays through the pain and is used to it, but it’s muscle pain and huge discomfort. He feels insecure because he is not used to having muscle injuries. So he feels like it could happen,” Tuchel said.
“He wants to come back, and the plan is he is back on Tuesday in training for Thursday [against Manchester United. Hopefully, we can stick to the plan.”
Bow out in style?
First of all, it’s good news that Rudiger doesn’t have any kind of long-term injury issue.
Chelsea are going to need him to get over the line in the Premier League’s top-four race.
In addition, you’d expect he’s one of the first names on the team sheet to start against Liverpool in May’s FA Cup final.
There may be some who don’t like the idea of playing stars that are heading for the exit doors in a couple of months time, but he’s one of the key men you expect to give his all until his last minute.
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