Four ruled out, including Mateo Kovačić, for Chelsea’s game against Newcastle United

Thomas Tuchel had a last-minute surprise for us in this morning’s press conference, and it was not a welcome one.

Well after he got done listing our current injuries, he had remembered that Mateo Kovačić strained his hamstring in the final moments of yesterday’s training session, and thus will not only miss tomorrow’s game against Newcastle United, but is set to be out for at least the next couple weeks — until after the international break in the best case, though hamstring injuries have a nasty tendency to linger.

“We had some very sad news yesterday because he injured himself in the very last minute of training. It’s a hamstring injury and he will be out for some weeks. Hopefully after the international break he can be back here.”

Kova joins the injured trio of Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, and Christian Pulisic on the sidelines. Of the four, only Pulisic has a chance to play before the international break, though he’s lacking greatly in match fitness, so that’s far from a certainty.

“Timo and Romelu are still out because of their injuries.

“Christian Pulisic did join the last two training sessions but it’s early given the time he missed. [He] is looking forward to the Burnley match. If everything goes right, he should be in the squad then and ready to play.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Chelsea FC

Tuchel did confirm that Ruben Loftus-Cheek will be available after training on his own yesterday following a hip injury, as will Andreas Christensen and César Azpilicueta, who both missed Tuesday’s match. So at least there is a bit of good news...