Tuchel just hoping Christensen hamstring injury not too severe

Andreas Christensen has been nigh on impeccable under Thomas Tuchel, stepping in when Thiago Silva went down injured and doing so well that he made himself undroppable even after Silva returned — instead, it was César Azpilicueta who got shifted from the right-center back position to make room for Christensen in the first-choice setup.

Unfortunately, yesterday’s momentous win over Manchester City did come at a price, namely Christensen’s hamstring, which he himself managed to tweak while making a rare miscue that led directly to City’s only goal of the game.

Christensen was able to carefully walk off under his own power, and Tuchel’s hoping that means that the 25-year-old will only miss days rather than weeks, especially as we had taken a risk in picking him to start for the sixth match running (the longest active streak on the team).

“I hope it’s not too bad. It’s more or less the same [injury] that he suffered some weeks ago around Porto games, I think, where we had to replace him.

“It was a fifty-fifty decision today whether we wanted to put him on the pitch or not. I hope we did not make a mistake. Because he’s so crucial for us in the last weeks — so, so strong.

“I hope we can escape with some days [of absence] and not weeks. But I’m not sure yet, I have no confirmation yet.”

-Thomas Tuchel; source: Chelsea TV via Chelsea Chronicle

With only three weeks left, Christensen will be indeed very lucky to play again this season. There’s no such thing as a small hamstring injury, and even the less severe cases tend to keep players out for weeks (see Mateo Kovačić for a recent example). And Christensen already missed three games with this same injury last month.

Tuchel has been very good and quite careful about load and injury-risk management, but in this case, the odds were not in our favor. Hopefully we can all cross our fingers and get Christensen back soon.

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