Thomas Tuchel says Chelsea's players and staff are disappointed and angry at the Premier League's decision to not postpone their clash against Wolves after three more members of the Blues squad tested positive for Covid.
Chelsea were already heading into the game without Ben Chilwell, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Timo Werner and Romelu Lukaku after that quartet entered self-isolation, having returned positive tests in the build-up to Thursday's draw against Everton.
And three more players have since tested positive for Covid over the past 24 hours. Andreas Christensen, meanwhile, is not fit to play having suffered an injury in training.
It's forced Tuchel into rushing N'Golo Kante back into his starting XI – the Frenchman starts alongside Trevoh Chalobah in midfield – and the German is unhappy with risking the safety of his players.
Speaking to BBC Sport, he said: "It is exactly like this, we thought we had a strong case regarding the security and health of players, we have seven positive cases, we were made to be in the bus and travel together for three hours, were in meeting together, in dinner and lunch and the situation does not feel like it will stop.
"We applied to not play and put the situation under control and it was rejected. It is very hard to understand it, we are concerned about the health of the players. We end up with players who play coming from injuries and we take the risk.
"I am worried from a medical point of view, we have had four days of consecutive tests. How will it stop if we are in a bus together and in meetings.
"We are disappointed, we are a bit angry."
Tuchel has only been able to name four outfield players on his substitutes' bench – one of those is Mateo Kovacic who hasn't featured for eight weeks due to a hamstring injury and Covid.
So he will have few potential game-changers and admits the hastened reintroduction of Kante and Chalonbah into the starting XI is a risk.
"N'Golo Kante is in after pretty much nothing. Hopefully, this goes well. It's a huge risk we take here. Same for Trevoh Chalobah."
