Thomas Tuchel accepts the vaccination status of potential new signings has to be considered by Chelsea after N'Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were unable to travel to the United States for the club's pre-season tour.
Chelsea flew a 29-man squad out to Los Angeles last weekend for an intense training camp and will play friendly matches against Club America in Las Vegas, Charlotte FC in Charlotte, and Arsenal in Orlando as Tuchel and his coaching staff push the players hard ahead the 2022/23 campaign.
Kante and Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, have remained in England as the U.S government’s current entry rules declare a Covid vaccination is mandatory for all visitors who are not U.S nationals. It is far from the ideal preparation for the midfield duo, who have undertaken work with Chelsea's Development Squad and featured in a friendly against Boreham Wood on Friday.
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"We cannot force," accepted Tuchel when asked about the absences of Kante and Loftus-Cheek this week. "It is at the moment a very normal decision to get vaccinated. Both players took the decision not to. We need to follow the rules – they cannot join us. They know about the consequences. We don’t like it, of course not. We would love to have them here and it's not an ideal solution. Far from ideal.
"But, once the situation is like this, you need to come up with a solution. They have their coaches there, have coaches from us there [with them] who take care. They train with the Under-23s and then they go with the Under-19s so as not to be completely out of a group. But it will not compensate. It will not be the same."
Earlier this month, The Telegraph reported clubs across Europe are reluctant to sign Premier League players who have refused the Covid vaccines. One source told the newspaper that "phone calls stop immediately” when it's discovered a potential new signing is not vaccinated.
And when Tuchel was asked whether a player's vaccination status would come into his thinking during transfer negotiations, the Chelsea head coach replied: "I knew some players who I would also take without vaccination, I have to say. But yes, it is a part of daily life at the moment. Yes, it has to [come into your thinking]."
The absence of Kante from Chelsea's pre-season tour is an unwelcome situation. He is a popular member of the squad and while he will get minutes under his belt with the Blues' academy sides, he will not be quite as sharp as those who return from the U.S next weekend.
However, after the fitness issues endured by the Frenchman during the 2021/22 campaign, Tuchel is hopeful of turning Kante's inability to travel to the U.S into a positive. "For N’Golo, it is maybe not even the worst thing to do [to stay in England]. We can give him a very, very individualised load. So maybe we can turn a disadvantage into an advantage," added Tuchel.
"I don’t think he, in particular, needs a long time to adapt to our game because N’Golo is N’Golo and everybody is aware he is a key player and needs to be a key player if we want to win big things."
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