Wednesday could be a critical day for Chelsea FC, their community, and everybody involved with it. Because it’s on Wednesday that manager Thomas Tuchel could likely learn whether he’ll have his No. 1 and his best defensive midfielder available for the Champions League Final against Manchester City.
Both will be given opportunities to pass fitness tests all through the week until Friday, but if they’re deemed fit on Wednesday, it will obviously give the squad more freedom and looseness in their preparation for Saturday night. Last week, in the win over Leicester City, midfield maestro N’Golo Kante seemingly suffered a reoccurrence of the hamstring injury that has plagued him during the home stretch of the season.
He had to be subbed off early, and missed out on the Championship Sunday loss to Aston Villa. As for Mendy, he suffered an injury to his ribs in that match, when he collided with the post. However, Tuchel updated the Mendy situation yesterday, when giving a session with reporters, and he said the results of the scan were promising as the “images show it is not too serious.”
In other words, he might be good to go, and he’s more probable than doubtful.
“We still have hope that he joins training on Wednesday and he joins the group,” Tuchel said in full
“He’s made a huge improvement in the management of pain. Edou will play if he is fit, and if he is not fit on Wednesday we will try on Thursday, and on Friday, and be always reasonable and take the responsibility for this decision.
“At the same time we have trust if he cannot make it, because we have a strong guy on the bench in Kepa who can start. So now the race is on, and hopefully Edou can do enough that he will be on the pitch. It would be a big boost for us.”
After the match on Sunday, Tuchel gave an update on Kante.
“For N’Golo nothing has changed,” the German said.
“I think about changing my tactics now to stop asking about N’Golo and just put him on the pitch in Wednesday’s training. Don’t ask him any more if there are any problems, just put him in training, and put him on the pitch when the game starts on Saturday.
“And maybe I will not speak to the doctors and the physios any more so I hear no more doubts, no complaints or nothing. So maybe I need to think about changing my tactics! But it looks good and I hope it stays like that.”
Tuchel is going up against Pep Guardiola, who was just crowned LMA Manager of the Year, and that’s an unenviable task. He’ll need to be at his best tactically, and he can’t do that unless he has all his best options available.
Or at the very least, he can’t let on to his opposition what he has and what he doesn’t have in his arsenal (not Arsenal) of weapons.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.