Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has bemoaned the team’s situation ahead of the game against Southampton.

Tuchel is short of midfield options in this game following the sending off of Conor Gallagher against Leicester City and the injury to N’Golo Kante.

According to Tuchel, Kovacic who only just returned from injury isn’t ready to start yet.

According to Tuchel, he only has Jorginho as the experienced central midfielder.

Tuchel said: “It’s the area where normally I would love to have a headache who plays and who is on the bench.

“I thought we could have five players who could all play for us, and have on top Carney as an option as a young player.

“The headache before the season was ‘do we have too many players there?’. It comes to the fifth game and we have only two left with experience in this position, and Kova from the bench.

“At the moment he’s not ready to play full matches at Premier League level. He has only had one week of training after his injury.

“It’s a strange situation and one we don’t like. It’s like this and we will have something to think about – or maybe not because it’s so obvious who we have left!”

Tuchel can pair Jorginho and Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the middle of the park. Mason Mount can as well drop deep, which he has done on some occasions, while Kovacic and Carney Chukwuemeka will be options on the bench.