Mauricio Pochettino has confirmed that summer signing Christopher Nkunku will play no part in Chelsea’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Middlesbrough.
Chelsea find themselves 1-0 down to the Championship side, after losing narrowly at the Riverside in the first leg.
Nkunku last featured for Chelsea at the end of 2023, in their 3-2 win at Luton, but has since suffered a further injury setback and Pochettino made it clear the Frenchman will not play.
“No [chance of playing]. Always happens, no? With long-term injuries, to find the balance is the difficult thing. He suffered with his hip. It is not a big issue”, said the Chelsea boss.
Chelsea will have to win the game by two or more goals to turn the tie around at Stamford Bridge.
Micheal Carrick’s side are 11th in the Championship, coming off the back of a 1-1 draw with bottom of the table Rotherham over the weekend.
Pochettino knows the importance of the tie and if Chelsea progress, they will play in an all Premier League final against either Liverpool or Fulham.
“It’s a passport to go to the final, to visit Wembley. It is an important game for us. We want to be in the final but first of all we need to beat a very good team. In the first leg, we could not beat them”, said Pochettino.
“We are confident we can have a very good game in front of our fans at Stamford Bridge. We need to take advantage of playing at Stamford Bridge.
“We feel very disappointed after the game. When you analyse the game, we deserved more. But football sometimes isn’t like that. We were all disappointed but we have 90 minutes to fix the situation and try to win.”
