Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has admitted that vaccination status has become a consideration for him when contemplating new signings.
The majority of the Chelsea squad are currently on pre-season tour in the US, but midfielders N'Golo Kante and Ruben Loftus-Cheek been left behind in England because they are not fully vaccinated.
Although testing rules have been lifted, regulations in the US dictate that any non-citizens aged 18 or over must be fully vaccinated - meaning they have had two doses of a vaccine - to enter the country.
Speaking ahead of Chelsea's 2-1 victory over Club America in Las Vegas on Saturday night, Tuchel admitted a player's vaccination status is now playing a part in his thinking when considering new signings.
“Yes, it has to [come into your thinking]. I know some players who I would also take without vaccination. I have to say. But, yes, it is a part of daily life at the moment.”
The Chelsea boss continued: "N’Golo is preparing himself with Ruben. We cannot force them [to be vaccinated]. 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, so 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 ideal. But once the situation is like this you need to come up with a solution.
“So they have their coaches there [in England]. They have coaches from us there who take care. They train with the Under-23s, but they go to the United States too, so then they go with the Under-19s to not be completely not in a group. But it will not compensate, it will not be the same.”
Both midfielders recently featured in a development squad friendly against Boreham Wood, and Tuchel is hopeful that missing the tour could actually play in Kante's favour after his last campaign was hampered by niggling injuries.
Tuchel added: “For N’Golo, it is maybe not even the worst thing to do, so we can give him a very individual load. A very, very individualised load for him. So maybe we can turn a disadvantage into an advantage.
“I don’t think he, in particular, needs a long time to adapt to our game because N’Golo is N’Golo and everybody is aware that he is a key player and needs to be a key player if you want to win big stuff.”
Source : 90min