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Football London
Football London
Sport
Bobby Vincent

Rudiger, Kovacic, Kante - Chelsea team news and injury updates ahead of Real Madrid second leg

Thomas Tuchel will wait to see whether Chelsea duo Mateo Kovacic and Antonio Rudiger are fit for Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second-leg against Real Madrid.

The Blues duo missed their side's 2-0 win over Fulham on Saturday afternoon through respective injuries.

Kovacic suffered a thigh problem, which Tuchel described as a "little setback" in his pre-Fulham press conference last week.

"Now we have a little setback with him," the Chelsea boss said on the Croatian midfielder.

"I don't want to be too negative. Let's see how he feels tomorrow."

As for Rudiger, Tuchel said he was hopeful he will be able to return to the side for the decisive leg against Los Blancos.

"Toni got injured in the last minute of the Madrid game," the German coach explained.

"I am quite positive for (him being available) for Wednesday."

In the first-leg in Valdebebas, Tuchel went with a back three of Rudiger, Thiago Silva and Andreas Christensen - who all looked very strong in the Spanish capital.

However, when forced to leave Rudiger out, Chelsea brought in Kurt Zouma on the left-hand side of the defensive line.

The likes of N'Golo Kante, Jorginho and Christian Pulisic all got somewhat of a rest in Saturday's Premier League win, and the trio could come back into Tuchel's team for the midweek clash at Stamford Bridge.

The tie remains fairly balanced, with the Blues boasting a slight advantage thanks to Pulisic scoring an away goal at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano.

However, Karim Benzema's fine finish before half-time in last week's first-leg means that the 13-time champions of Europe are still well in the Champions League tie.

But Zinedine Zidane has suffered a huge blow, with Dani Carvajal being ruled out for the remainder of the season after the Spain defender suffered a hamstring problem against Chelsea.

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