Mason Mount is missing Chelsea’s Premier League clash with Newcastle due to illness, manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.
The England midfielder was a surprise omission from Chelsea’s match day squad as the early Premier League leaders travelled to St James’ Park on Saturday afternoon.
A potential absence for Mount had not been discussed in the build-up to the weekend.
“He should have started but he got ill overnight and so we sent him home to London so that we can take care of him better and that he can recover better,” Tuchel told Chelsea’s 5th Stand app ahead of the game on Tyneside.
N’Golo Kante returned to Chelsea’s starting lineup against Newcastle after missing the 7-0 demolition of Norwich with muscle tightness, but Tuchel revealed on Friday that Croatian international Mateo Kovacic would be sidelined “for some weeks” due to a hamstring injury.
The Blues are also likely to be without strikers Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner until after the international break, though Christian Pulisic made a timely return to training at Cobham this week and the likes of Andreas Christensen (tooth), captain Cesar Azpilicueta (shoulder) and Ruben Loftus-Cheek (hip) are also back fit.
