Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Tammy Abraham was not injured as he missed out on the matchday squad to face West Bromwich Albion.
The Blues were beaten 5-2 by the 19th-placed Baggies as Tuchel tasted defeat for the first time as manager.
Despite Christian Pulisic's opener in the first half, Chelsea were comfortably beaten after spending more than two-thirds of the match with 10 men on the pitch following Thiago Silva's sending off.
After coming back from injury and being passed fit for the game, Abraham was a surprise omission from the 18-man squad and Tuchel has now shed light on why the striker wasn't picked.
He told talkSPORT: “He was not in the squad. I have to nominate 18 players. There are tough choices to make. We take the choices of what the game demands, of what we predict, of the substitutions that we have.
“In the end, we have to select 18 players for more or less 20 positions. So we have to leave three players out and Tammy was one of the three players."
The German coach continued: “It’s nothing personal or nothing big. He has the same chance to play every three days like everybody else.”
Timo Werner started up front for Chelsea and managed to get an assist as he laid the ball off to Mason Mount, who scored to make it 4-2, before the Baggies scored again late on.
Olivier Giroud, who was on the bench, didn't manage to get on the pitch, with Kai Havertz, Andreas Christensen and Mount being Tuchel's three substitutions during the game.
