Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has decided to leave striker Romelu Lukaku out of the squad for their Premier League game against Liverpool, following the Belgian’s controversial comments that surfaced recently, as per The Atletic.
Lukaku voiced his grievances at playing a bit-part role at Chelsea during the opening months of his return to the club in a previously recorded interview with Sky Italia, which the news agency only released to the public earlier this week.
The Belgian also hinted at a return to former club Inter Milan several times during the interview after his unceremonious exit from the club the previous summer.
Chelsea made the forward their record signing last summer by paying Internazionale 97.5 million pounds for his services in August 2021; he has scored seven goals in 18 outings across all tournaments since then.
The striker fired the Nerazzurri to their first Italian title in a decade and looked set to stay at the club after they had sanctioned the sale of Achraf Hakimi, only to change his mind and rejoin Chelsea.
It is believed that the 28-year-old meant for the interview to mend burned bridges between himself and the Inter supporters, who voiced their anger at his sudden departure in the summer amid a club-wide crisis which also saw manager Antonio Conte step down from his role.
Chelsea boss Tuchel publicly revealed his displeasure at the timing of Lukaku’s comments in his pre-Liverpool press conference.
“I don’t like it because it brings noise that we don’t need. It’s just not helpful,”
he said.
While Lukaku will miss Chelsea’s game against the Reds, Tuchel’s side are set to be boosted by the return of Thiago Silva and Timo Werner, who featured in the pre-match training.
