Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel explains Tammy Abraham snub for FA Cup semi-final clash versus Manchester City

Thomas Tuchel has explained why he left Tammy Abraham out of his 20-man Chelsea squad to face Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-finals.

The 23-year-old was revealed to be left out of the Blues squad for the trip to Wembley and that was confirmed when the lineups were announced an hour ahead of kick-off.

Abraham’s omission comes as a surprise considering his record in the FA Cup this season, and he is still Chelsea’s top goalscorer this season in all competitions.

EFE/José Manuel Vidal/Sipa USA

His future at the club is in doubt after some teammates were shocked at his omission for Saturday’s semi-final.

West Ham and Leicester City are showing interest in the England international, and Tuchel explained ahead of the game his reasoning to leave Abraham out of the squad.

Speaking ahead of the semi-final to why Abraham misses out, Tuchel said: “There isn’t much on Tammy but he’s lost a little bit of confidence recently and we’ve taken the hard decision to leave him out today.

“It was a tough decision but we decided to go with Timo, and with Kai and Oli Giroud from the bench. We have other injured players missing today, which would mean even more hard decisions.”

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