Chelsea’s season is almost over. Thomas Tuchel held his final pre-match press conference of the season on Monday, just 24 hours after the last league game was played.
On Saturday we face Manchester City in Porto in the Champions League final, and from there it’s into the summer break. After a long season – in fact a season that almost feels like two seasons end to end, the players will get a well deserved break – except, of course, those playing in the European Championships for their country.
Those called up for the tournament will all be delighted to have the chance to represent their countries – but it’s going to be an unprecedented physical challenge. On the back of this double season, they’ve made it all the way to the last game of the club calendar, playing more games than almost anyone on the continent.
The squads have already been announced for some big hitters like Spain and England, and once Germany, Italy and France are announced we will likely be into double figures of Blues heading across the continent to continue their marathon campaign.
The Euro 2021 odds doing the rounds at the moment have England and France as favourites, and there are Chelsea favourites in both those teams. It seems likely that some of Thomas Tuchel’s men will go deep into the knockout rounds at the very least, adding yet more minutes and yet more fatigue and injury risk on the end of 18 months of almost non-top action.
We’ve seen the effects all season, and things aren’t likely to improve anytime soon. N’Golo Kante, for example, is a doubt for this Saturday’s game, the biggest in his career since the World Cup final. But will Didier Deschamps be thinking about his long term health when it comes to picking his team for France’s first group game? We think not.
Tuchel will be sitting through the whole thing with his fingers crossed, and he might well secretly find himself hoping that England and the other teams with heavy Chelsea representation are knocked out early on.
That will give his players more time to recover, physically and mentally, before next season rolls around – believe us, it won’t feel like long. His job is hard enough as it is, the prospect of losing stars to injuries playing for their countries just makes things even trickier.
As much as we want to see a Blue lifting the trophy, what’s equally important is that they all come home in one piece.
