Abraham was forced to leave 20 minutes away from Chelsea’s 2-0 win over Newcastle on Monday night after appearing to injure his ankle in a tight challenge from captain Toon.
His replacement Olivier Giroud opened the scoring and Timo Werner ended his scoring drought with a league first in 15 appearances, as Chelsea secured a comfortable victory before half-time.
Lascelles won the ball and his tackle went unpunished but Tuchel and his assistant were keen to show referee Peter Bankes a replay of the incident in the meantime.
“There is no update [on Abraham]”Tuchel told reporters afterwards.” It’s a problem because we had to take it off so soon after a tough tackle. We are worried but there is no news.
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“My assistant tried to show him [Bankes] on the iPad. We had the feeling it was a reckless tackle. He played the ball, yes, but for me it was too much because you risked injuring an opponent and for me it was a foul. “
Werner set up Giroud’s first game with a fierce cross which was parried by Newcastle goalkeeper Karl Darlow before converting at the back post for his first league goal in exactly 1,000 minutes – a run dating back to November 7 .
Tuchel said he hopes the strike will be a turning point for the German and see the floodgates open in the high flight.
“Yes, of course,” said the manager. “For forwards, the last percent of confidence and confidence comes from goals and nothing else. He worked really hard for it.
“He’s been very decisive with assists and penalties in the last few games and today a goal and that’s a great, great point for him. I’m happy because he put in a lot of effort and so now I think it’s a big relief, but we saw it coming. “
The victory put Tuchel’s side in the top four and edged out Liverpool, which they were following by five points when the German took over from Frank Lampard exactly three weeks ago.
“A lot of people said when we started that it wouldn’t be possible because there were a lot of places and points between us and Liverpool in fourth place,” Tuchel said.
“It was clear that everything was not in our hands and that we needed results on other grounds to close the gap. This was the situation when we started. Since then, we haven’t spent a minute thinking about the other fields and the other teams, the situations with the fixtures.
“We just spent every minute with our team focusing on us. To prepare for the matches because we play in the most difficult league and we have to be ready every three days.
“We have had different competitions and we are still in three competitions. Normally it can be a reward today to watch the fixtures, but it cannot be a distraction from Thursday. [when Chelsea return after a two-day break].
“The only focus will be how to be ready for Southampton. I think my players know that very well. We have worked hard for this momentum. The players have worked incredibly hard to win all of these games in a row and it won’t stop. It’s the bad news, but everyone is prepared for it.
“Everyone who signs for Chelsea wants to have this competition and the challenge now is to continue. But we can look at our performance, our determination and our hunger to not allow anyone to fall to 99%. ”
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