Chelsea fans on social media were saddened after discovering that Dujon Sterling had not been included in the squad to face Tottenham Hotspur yesterday.
Sterling featured in the two previous friendlies against Bournemouth and Arsenal but was omitted from last night’s set-up completely.
This will come as a serious blow to Sterling on several different levels.
For one, it indicates that Thomas Tuchel is not planning to add the defender to his first-team camp this year.
Which comes as a blow, considering he’d performed pretty well away to Bournemouth and the Gunners.
But perhaps most poignantly of all, he missed the opportunity to play out in front of a full capacity Stamford Bridge crowd.
Blues fans were certainly sorry not to see Sterling in the flesh.
Here’s how they reacted on Twitter:
Sterling work with no reward
It is easy to read into situations whenever a player is overlooked for a matchday line up.
Especially when they have been in around the side recently.
But Tuchel has to start refining his set of stars before the competitive season gets underway.
With so many to chose from, several will miss out, usually through no fault of their own.
Sterling played well over the previous set of fixtures, but it always going to be difficult breaking into the defence.
That being said, Tuchel has reportedly been impressed with the 21-year-old in training over the past month.
So much so, Chelsea were apparently planning to offer him a new contract.
Unfortunately, this extension is yet to surface, as Sterling might be resigned to another campaign on loan or with the development team.
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