Romelu Lukaku is reportedly not in Chelsea’s squad to face Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday.
Lukaku – who arrived at Stamford Bridge from Inter Milan in a deal worth £96million this summer – has been at the centre of controversy this week after he revealed in an interview that he was unhappy in his role at Stamford Bridge and stated his desire to return to the Italian side.
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Speaking to Sky Sport Italia, Lukaku said: “Physically I’m fine, even better than before.
“After two years in Italy, in which I worked a lot at Inter with trainers and nutritionists, I am physically fine.
“But I’m not happy with the situation, this is normal. I think the coach has chosen to play with another system, I just have to not give up and continue to work and be a professional.
“I am not happy with the situation, but I am a worker and I must not give up.”
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was surprised and not pleased with Lukaku’s comments, claiming the striker brought unnecessary “noise” through the interview, which was recorded several weeks ago but aired on Thursday.
“Yeah we don’t like it because it brings noise that we don’t need, but on the other side we don’t want to make noise, it’s very easy to make headlines or shorten lines,” Tuchel told reporters on Friday.
“But I do not like it as it’s noise that we don’t need, we need a calm environment.”
Lukaku has scored in his last two appearances for Chelsea against Aston Villa and Brighton, but has irritated the club to the point where it seems he has been dropped by Tuchel, with The Athletic reporting he is not part of the squad to take on Liverpool on Sunday.
Chelsea are 11 points behind leaders Manchester City and realistically need to beat fellow title rivals Liverpool to stand any chance of competing for the title.
Trevor Sinclair believes Lukaku let the Chelsea fans down with his comments.
He said: “I’m in absolute shock. I was at Chelsea’s win against Villa and I watched him in the warm up.
“I was intrigued because he was out for a while and wondered what his mood was going to be like – he was smiling, laughing, he looked like he was loving being back in the Chelsea squad.
“The second-half performance cemented what I was thinking. He looked happy, he played happy, got a goal, an elite striker’s goal and then the third goal where he won the penalty I thought was one of the best runs to earn a penalty from him I’ve seen in a long time.
“For him to come out with those comments, I think he should be apologising to the Chelsea fans. That’s so disrespectful to the Chelsea fans.”
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