Thomas
Tuchel has confirmed defender Thiago Silva will miss the first leg of
Chelsea's Champions League last-16 tie against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday.
The Brazil international defender was injured in the first half of Chelsea's
1-0 Premier League win at Tottenham on February 4 and has missed victories
over Sheffield United, Barnsley and Newcastle, as well as Saturday's 1-1
draw with Southampton.
Silva was pictured training towards the end of last week but was not fit
enough to play at St Mary's on the weekend, and Tuchel says the 36-year-old
remains unavailable for the match in Bucharest.
"He is not available," the Chelsea head coach said at a press conference on
Monday. "He is training right now. We are leaving and he is not available."
However, Tuchel did confirm both Kai Havertz and Christian Pulisic will be
in contention for the game against the La Liga leaders.
Havertz has been absent since the 2-0 win over Burnley on January 31, while
Pulisic has started once under Tuchel so far due to several issues including
a minor calf problem.
"Very happy that both of them are in the group," Tuchel said. "They trained
with us, no complaints, and they travel with us."
'We spoke to Hudson-Odoi in front of the
whole group'
Tuchel also discussed replacing Callum Hudson-Odoi in Chelsea's 1-1 draw at
Southampton on Saturday despite only bringing the winger on at half-time.
Hudson-Odoi was substituted because his "attitude" was not right, Tuchel
said after the match, and the German revealed how he addressed the
situation.
"We decided to speak to Callum in front of the whole group not alone," he
said.
"For us, it was not a big thing. I know it can be sometimes.
"Still I did it and we had the only reaction we wanted - he went back to a
good mood and trained well. This is the lesson for us to learn."
Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has
heaped praise on Tuchel ahead of Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first
leg.
The tie will take place in Bucharest instead of Madrid due to coronavirus
travel restrictions and will see the Argentine face the German for the first
time in a competitive fixture.
Since Tuchel replaced Frank Lampard at Stamford Bridge he has guided the
Blues to five wins out of seven in all competitions, and also led former
club Paris Saint-Germain to the final of the Champions League in August.
"We just have to make a good game against a very big team, with a new coach,
a very big coach and an important one that did his job everywhere he went
to," Simeone said.
"Chelsea is a very strong club, they develop every time and every year. They
bring a lot of new players and invest in young players.
"When they didn't see the investment and it didn't pay, they had that
change. They brought Tuchel but it is a really big team and since he came he
put a good change in the numbers.
"Just look at what players they have at goalkeeper, at striker and everyone
who is on the bench can very well play in any team in Europe."
Atletico are not blessed with such luxuries but made a key addition during
the summer when they convinced Luis Suarez to join from La Liga rivals
Barcelona.
The ex-Liverpool striker has repaid the faith of Simeone with 16 goals to
fire them to the top of the table.
"It is very important the presence of Luis Suarez in every competition, not
just in the Champions League because he gives energy, he gives trust," the
50-year-old added.
"All the opponents are really paying a lot of attention to him because this
is a man who is scoring. Of course he is important every day."
Chelsea face Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League
last-16 tie on Tuesday before hosting Manchester United in the Premier
League on Sunday, live on Sky Sports from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm.
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