Premier League leaders Chelsea will be without Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic for a trip to Newcastle United on Saturday after he suffered a hamstring injury in training.
Manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed that Kovacic was injured at the end of Thursday’s season and will be out until after next month’s international break.
Croatia tours Malta and then hosts Russia in their World Cup qualifying campaign in November. They are in second place in the Group H standings, two points behind Russia.
“It is very sad news. He injured himself in the last minute of training and suffered a hamstring injury and will really be out for a few weeks, definitely next week and then comes the international break,” Tuchel said at a new conference.
“Hopefully he will be back after the international break. He was doing too much in training so I have a slight fault in that.”
Kovacic, who would have been in line for his 100th Premier League appearance, has been always present for Chelsea this season and has been in a rich vein with five-goal assists.
There was better news for Chelsea with Andreas Christensen and Cesar Azpilicueta missing out on a midweek League Cup win over Southampton, but strikers Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic are still unavailable.
“The goal for them is after the international break,” said Tuchel. “Police we’re looking at the Burnley match (on November 6th) if all goes well.”
Chelsea have set the pace in the first two months of the season and are looking to make it a three-horse title race with champions Manchester City and Liverpool.
Tuchel’s side has 22 points from nine matches, one more than Liverpool and two more than City, but he is refusing to get away, saying the season is like running a marathon.
“Like I said many times, Liverpool and City have set the standard during the last four or five years and they showed how many points you have to score to win this league,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure there are a lot of teams out there that are hungry for points and so I have no predictions about how this thing will end.
“We are almost in October and November is approaching and a lot is needed in terms of focus, concentration and consistency.
“It’s not enough to prove (that we’ve closed the gap) for nine games, we need to prove it through our season and it takes all our courage, all our efforts, all our discipline. will take …”
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