Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel admits it’s unfortunate that N’Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are not on pre-season tour in the United States.
The Blues duo were unable to travel to the US with their team due to the fact that they decided not to get a Covid-19 vaccination.
Tuchel explained that they are instead training with coaches in London to prepare for the new season – a situation the German admits is not ideal.
“He is preparing himself with Ruben,” Tuchel said when asked about Kante, as quoted by Daily Star.
“We cannot force them [to take the vaccine]. It is at the moment a very normal decision to get vaccinated. Both players took the decision not to. We need to follow the rules. They cannot join us. They know about the consequences. We don’t like it. Of course not.
“We would love to have them here and it’s not an ideal solution. Far from it. But, once the situation is like this you need to come up with a solution. So they have their coaches there.
“They train with the Under-23s. Then they go with the Under-19s to not be completely not be in a group. But it will not compensate. It will not be the same.”