Injury scare for Christian Pulisic as Chelsea lost to West Brom
According to NBCSN pundit Robbie Earle (h/t Metro), Thomas Tuchel revealed that Christian Pulisic was brought off for Chelsea due to a fear of another hamstring injury in the defeat against West Brom.
NBCSN showed footage where Pulisic is seen entering the field but shortly going back to the dugout after feeling something in his troublesome hamstring. (h/t Metro)
He suffered a brutal hamstring injury in the FA Cup final defeat against Arsenal last season. It forced him to miss the start of this campaign and he has still had recurring fitness issues since he re-joined the squad in October.
Tuchel has not handed a lot of minutes to the player he worked with previously at Borussia Dortmund as Pulisic has just had 2 starts since his appointment. One of those came against West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.
Precautionary measure
And the American winger made the most of this opportunity. He followed up a Marcos Alonso free-kick that hit the post and put Chelsea 1-0 up in the 27th minute.
Thiago Silva was sent off just 2 minutes later as the Blues completely capitulated. Going in 2-1 down at half-time, headaches increased for Tuchel as he was forced to replace Pulisic with Mason Mount.
The English midfielder scored a consolation goal in the second half. However, it could not prevent an embarrassing 2-5 home defeat to the 19th-placed West Bromwich Albion.
The Blues are still in 4th, just 2 points in front of 5th-placed Liverpool. Their next task is a UEFA Champions League quarter-final encounter with FC Porto on Wednesday night.
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Tuchel would be hoping that taking off Pulisic prematurely helped in not aggravating his hamstring problem and that the former Dortmund winger can be in the squad for the all-important European tie.