Chelsea Hoping To Have Tuchel Available For Club World Cup Final

Tuchel has been absent for Chelsea’s last two matches against Plymouth Argyle in the FA Cup and Al-Hilal in the Club World Cup semi-finals after testing positive for coronavirus. He was not part of Chelsea’s travelling party for the competition as a result.

The German is expected to undergo further tests on Friday to see if he returns a negative test and a specially arranged private jet is on standby to fly him to the UAE.

Asked about preparing for the game without Tuchel, Chelsea vice-captain Jorginho said: "Of course it's different. His energy helps a lot, but he's not here now and the staff is trying to do their best. We can feel that.

"We feel sorry Thomas is not here with us, but he's involved all the time, in touch with the staff and team. We can feel the staff, all of them, are doing their best."

"Of course it gives you more," Jorginho continued. "There's more energy in the changing room. It'll be really important for us if he could be here. That's what we hope but at the moment we just don't know. We can hope."

Chelsea assistant boss Zsolt Low, set to lead the team if Tuchel cannot make the trip, added: "We still hope he can come and enjoy the group and the final as soon as possible.

"He is following the rules and getting tested. There is a lot of time. Any test he does could be negative. We hope this happens in the next hours. Thomas absolutely thinks he can be there, and the team and the whole staff want him to come for the final.

"We hope he can come, but if he cannot, we are still well prepared. We have had a lot of meetings. We had a video conference after the first game analysing it, and seeing what we can do better and what problems we had. We are absolutely clear what happened in the first game and what we have to do better in the second game."