Thomas Tuchel has confirmed Romelu Lukaku WILL not be featuring for Chelsea at Leicester on Saturday, and are sweating on his fitness for the games against Juventus and Manchester United.

Lukaku has been missing for a month because of an ankle injury, suffered during the club’s 4-0 Champions League win over Malmo on October 20. He is set to return to team training this weekend. Mateo Kovacic, meanwhile, is not close to returning.

In better news, Chelsea have Timo Werner, Christian Pulisic and Mason Mount all available, as they look to stay top of the Premier League.

“He’s pushing hard,” Tuchel said of Lukaku when asked about the upcoming games against Juve and United. “It’s pure speculation and it will not help.

“All I can say is, at the moment, we try hard. There are a lot of ifs and I don’t want to put pressure on him. He’s putting pressure on himself.

“We will take things serious as always, have talks with doctors, physios, and the player.”

Asked about Conor Gallagher, the Chelsea youngster who is on loan at Crystal Palace and flying, Tuchel said: “It’s too early to talk about, and way too early in public before we talk with Conor himself with what he wants and his goals.

“This will happen in the summer. He saw this possibility for him and we had these talks before. I’m not surprised the national coach loves him because I loved him from day one.

“There cannot be a coach who does not love guys like this. He’s all the time ready to give his everything, and he wants to improve. As a team-mate I would have loved to play with him because he’s a helper.”