Thomas Tuchel has revealed he has held clear-the-air talks with Tammy Abraham over the striker’s role in his Chelsea squad.
Abraham remains Chelsea’s top goal scorer this season but has started just four games under the German coach – coming off at half-time in two of those.
While an ankle injury has ruled him out of recent games, his lack of game time when fit has raised questions over his future at Stamford Bridge with the striker about to enter the final year of his contract with the Blues.
Chelsea are also among the clubs eager to sign Borussia Dortmund star Erling Haaland this summer, heaping further uncertainty on his situation.
Abraham is in contention to return to the side for Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final clash with Sheffield United with Tuchel suggesting he will have his chances in the coming weeks.
‘We had some talks to encourage him to never give in, to accept the situation, to not overthink it, to just come back to the situation where the striker must not overthink it,’ Tuchel said on Friday.
‘He just needs to be in the flow and if the team is winning without him then you can feel a little bit excluded.
‘But it’s not like this with him so hopefully he can be back now, back in the squad, be totally free and there’s some hard choices and he’s a part of the group.
‘It’s been hard for him because he’s never felt fully free, never felt fully painless after this tackle (against Newcastle), so it was hard for him to really perform on the level that you need to perform in training to convince your coach to leave somebody else out.
‘In the moment where we left him out, it was a strong decision, we had other options on the bench.’
MORE : Chelsea want new centre-half this summer with three defenders on transfer wish-list
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