Thomas
Tuchel is hopeful Chelsea midfielders Mateo Kovacic and N'Golo Kante will be
available for Saturday's FA Cup final against Liverpool and admits he is
prepared to gamble on the duo's fitness.
Kovacic looked set to miss the encounter having been forced off with an
ankle injury after Daniel James' red-card tackle in Chelsea's 3-0 win over
Leeds on Wednesday.
But speaking at his pre-match press conference, Tuchel revealed Kovacic was
expected to take part in Chelsea's afternoon training session on Friday with
a view to proving his fitness to face Liverpool.
"We will try it today, which is pretty surprising news," he said on the
Croatian international.
"Mateo wants to try it and the medical department gave the green light to
try it.
"The advantage is that the ligament is torn anyway from the last incident,
so there is no new injury, but heavy pain. It was heavily swollen.
"We are hoping that maybe the time is enough that he makes it, but we will
try it in training and then we will know more about it."
Asked if Kovacic would require surgery at the end of the season to repair
the damaged ligament, Tuchel added: "No. How I understood it as not an
expert is that the high mobility [of his ligament] helped him to escape
without a huge injury."
Of Kante, who has missed Chelsea's last three games with an unspecified
injury, Tuchel said: "He is also trying. He tried yesterday in team
training, hopefully now without a reaction.
"It was a reduced training session because of long travel and fatigue of the
travelling, so it was not a high-intensity session.
"But he is keen to make it and hopefully he makes it to training 100 per
cent so that we can plan with him tomorrow. That would be crucial for us."
Asked if he would be willing to take a risk with either player given the
importance of the game, Tuchel added: "It's the moment to take risks."
Tuchel insisted he was in the dark over claims that striker Romelu Lukaku's
agent is planning talks with the club's new owners about his future at the
end of the season.
"I think if he plans to talk with the owner maybe it is not his plan to talk
with me," said Tuchel.
"It's fair enough. Let's see if he gets a meeting! It is his right.
"We will talk to anybody. We will evaluate any situation of any player
including Romelu. We will see what is going to happen and what the plans
are."
The Belgian has endured a difficult season in west London but followed up
his double against Wolves at the weekend with another goal in the win over
Leeds, giving Tuchel a dilemma over whether to start him or Kai Havertz up
front.
"We can also play both, although they lacked a bit of the feeling of being a
perfect fit together.
"It's very likely that it is one of the two but we will not give the line-up
today.
"Listen, Romelu played lately and scored lately. He did everything to stay
on the pitch. Will be our final call in the morning."
Klopp: FA Cup is massive for us
Jurgen Klopp is determined to win the FA Cup for the first time in his
Liverpool tenure as the Reds aim to keep their quadruple bid alive but he is
expecting another tightly-contested encounter.
Liverpool and Chelsea could only be separated by an epic penalty shootout in
February's Carabao Cup final, with Klopp's side emerging 11-10 winners after
an absorbing goalless draw, while their two Premier League meetings this
season have also ended as draws.
"We didn't 'beat' Chelsea, we won the penalty shootout, one of the craziest
shootouts ever," he said of the Carabao Cup final.
"We know in football without luck you have no chance and that night I think
luck was more on our side during the shootout.
"It was a tough game. We know how good Chelsea are and we expect another
tough one. Both teams will go with all they have, that's what I expect from
Chelsea and especially from us.
"What we realised from the Carabao Cup is how big an occasion Wembley is in
this moment with all the people in. It felt outstanding and we want to have
that again."
He continued: "I've never won the FA Cup before and most of my players have
never won it.
"We are really looking forward to this opportunity. The boys worked their
socks off to arrive there with all the different challenges. It is a massive
final for us and really happy to be a part of.
"It will never happen that we see the FA Cup final as a normal game. It's a
special game, for some of us the biggest in their career and we really want
to enjoy that as well. We want to deliver it for our people."
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