Thomas Tuchel felt safety put at risk by allowing Chelsea game at Wolves to go ahead despite Covid cases

Thomas Tuchel was happy with how his Chelsea side performed at Wolves, but feels safety was put at risk by allowing the game to take place.

Chelsea appealed to the Premier League for the game to be called off, after Jorginho tested positive for Covid-19 on Saturday evening.

The request was rejected by the Premier League, despite Jorginho’s positive test coming on the back of Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner and Callum Hudson-Odoi also being struck down earlier in the week.

Chelsea went on to grind out a draw, so losing further ground in the title race, with Tuchel naming only six substitutes - two of which were goalkeepers.

Tuchel was asked for his view on what impact the Covid situation had on his side.

“It had a huge impact, because suddenly in the evening Jorginho with a positive test, and knowing that we were sitting in the bus together, it made a lot of people concerned,” Tuchel told BeIN Sports. “Then today, 8:30, we were forced to do more tests - we wake the players up and bring them out of their rooms to do tests in which they maybe do not trust 100% any more because the last three positive cases were negative on the flow test but positive on the PCR. So you make them wake up, you hear different stories about Jorgi’s test - negative, positive - that does not help.

“Normally we focus and there is a reason why we try to focus on games, so we were not 100% focused.

In what will be a concern given the rising Covid cases around the country, when asked if he felt it was safe for the game to go ahead, Tuchel replied: “For us, it did not feel like this.

“We have several days of positive testing for players and staff, so what is the chance that it stops if we keep driving around in a bus, doing meetings and having dinners and lunches together?

“I don’t think there is a high possibility that it stops. But let’s see. Hopefully it stops.”