Chelsea Boss Thomas Tuchel Offers 'Frustrating' Injury Update After Brighton Draw

KEY POINTS

Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw by Brighton
Lukaku scored for Chelsea
Welbeck netted an injury-time equalizer for Brighton

Thomas Tuchel confirmed Reece James suffered a hamstring injury during Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Brighton in the Premier League on Wednesday.

Just 27 minutes into the game at Stamford Bridge, James needed the support of two members of Chelsea's medical staff as he made his way off the pitch and was replaced by Marcos Alonso. To make matters worse for Tuchel, Andreas Christensen had already been hurt but he soldiered until half-time when he too was replaced by Trevoh Chalobah.

Over the last few weeks, the Chelsea camp has been severely hit by injuries and COVID-19. While Romelu Lukaku finally made his first league start in 10 weeks and N'Golo Kante and Kai Havertz were featured against Brighton, Chelsea were still without Thiago Silva, Timo Werner and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, all sidelined, along with long-term absentee Ben Chilwell. Several other players are still shy of full fitness.

"Very frustrating. Of course, very disappointing because we gave everything and we had enough big chances to decide the match. It was a very intense match and we have another two changes because of injuries. So in the dressing room, they are completely, completely exhausted. But it is the same subject every single matchday now," Tuchel said in a post-match interview with Amazon Prime, Teamtalk reported.

Lukaku put Chelsea 1-0 up Wednesday with his 28th-minute strike before Brighton's Danny Welbeck negated the lead with his injury-time equalizer.

Chelsea are placed second in the 2021-22 Premier League with 42 points from 20 games, eight points behind table-toppers Manchester City.

"We have two injuries. Again we have to play with players who would normally be out after 60 mins, that’s the point. No prognosis (on James). Hamstring injury. We can try to find players who are ready to play. We have no more wing-backs, we have everybody injured and players coming back from Covid situations and we're playing, playing, playing. I will always protect my players and first of all, we need to digest this," added Tuchel in the same interview.

Tuchel has also confirmed that Christensen suffered a back injury, according to Chelsea's official website.

"We knew it would be a tough match against a strong side. I have not seen one team play a nice match against them. It was clear we would struggle. We have simply way too many players for whom we don’t know what we can demand. They come from long injuries, from Covid. I don't know what they are capable of. We started very well. The injury to Reece James was a huge blow. Andreas until then was one of the top players on the pitch. It's too much," Tuchel told Chelsea's official website after the frustrating 1-1 draw.