Thomas Tuchel has confirmed Romelu Lukaku has apologised for an interview where he claimed to be unhappy at Chelsea and revealed his hopes to return to Inter Milan.
The Belgian striker came under fire for the explosive interview with Italian media and was subsequently left out of Chelsea’s squad for their draw to Liverpool.
It appears the player and manager have settled their differences nowGetty
However, things appear to have been patched up between Lukaku and the manager with Tuchel also revealing the 28-year-old is back in contention to play in their Carabao Cup clash against Tottenham on Wednesday, live on talkSPORT.
Tuchel told journalists: “We were happy that we took the time needed to look calmly on it and to talk calmly about it.
“He apologised and he’s back in the squad for today’s [Tuesday’s] training.
“For me, the most important thing was to understand and to clearly understand and believe it was not intentional, he did not do this intentionally to create this kind of noise in front of a big game.”
Lukaku has shown remorse for his words and is set for a second chanceGetty
Tuchel continued: “It was the very first time… there was never the slightest behaviour against the team. It was the very, very first time we actually felt him in this way.
“These are very important points to understand, it’s not as big as people maybe want it to be or you [the media] want it to be.
“It’s not small but it’s small enough to stay calm, to accept an apology and to move forward from it.”
Listen to full commentary of Chelsea vs Tottenham live on talkSPORT, kick-off 7:45pm.
