Chelsea FC’s Manager, Thomas Tuchel, rallied the club’s bit-part players on Thursday by saying the race was on for them to prove themselves after Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner were injured.
Lukaku sustained an ankle injury and Werner hurt his hamstring during the first half of the 4-0 home victory over Malmo FC in UEFA Champions League Group H on Wednesday.
Belgium striker, Lukaku, was injured by a tackle from Lasse Nielsen which resulted in a penalty kick, Jorginho confidently dispatched to add to Andreas Christensen’s opener.
Kai Havertz replaced Lukaku and scored Chelsea’s third before playing a role in another penalty kick for the Blues which was converted by Jorginho.
Chelsea have five games to come over the next 17 days and Tuchel said there can be no excuses for a decline in results.
That is if Lukaku and Werner are sidelined for an extended period.
“We have a twisted ankle with Romelu and a hamstring injury for Timo. So, they will be out for some days, I guess,” Tuchel said.
“Normally we’re in a good place injury-wise —— we had only Christian Pulisic out. But we miss everybody.
“We have a lot of games to play, a lot of competitions. Now we have to find solutions. No excuses accepted.
“The two were in good shape and were dangerous and could create and score.
“Now we need to find solutions and guys who waited for their chance need to step up and prove that they can do the same thing.
“Whoever it might be, the race is on. The guys who will start against Norwich in the next game have our trust. We will try to find new solutions.
“Let’s stay positive. We won games before without Timo and we won games before without Romelu. We don’t want to have these problems too often, but these things happen in the season.”
Havertz could now be in line to start against Norwich City in the Premier League on Saturday.
He said: “I came from the bench, you always have to be ready. It is always tough to come in, but I tried to do my best in the second half to score a goal. So, it is a nice feeling”.
