Thiago Silva has sent a classy message to Chelsea fans and his teammates ahead of this evening's Champions League fixture.
Chelsea take on Atletico Madrid in their round of 16 second leg this evening, and they have a 1-0 lead to defend thanks to Olivier Giroud's acrobatic effort in Romania last month.
But ahead of the game, the Blues have received a blow with veteran defender Silva ruled out having failed to completely recover from his thigh injury.
Silva has been out since early February with the injury and has returned from training in recent weeks, but he has not been deemed fit enough to play here.
Tuchel said ahead of tonight's clash: “We also need to work without Thiago Silva and Tammy Abraham for this game. They are not quite right yet but with an international break now coming, I don’t think there is too much risk in me saying that we expect them to join us again after the international break.
“So we are missing four key players for this game but that makes the selection a little bit easier, because we can select 23 players in the Champions League.
“We will use the whole squad. We can make five substitutes during the match, so we have a clear idea of what we can do.”
On the back of that, Silva himself has posted a message to Chelsea fans, telling them he will be watching from the stands tonight, cheering on his teammates.
"Unfortunately I won’t be in the field with you tonight @chelseafc, but I’ll be cheering from the stands of #StamfordBridge!! God bless you all," he wrote on Twitter, along with a praying emoji and two blue icons.
Classy from the veteran, who will be desperate to go one better than last season when he reached the Champions League final with PSG.
