Premier League side, Chelsea, have slammed a heavy £325,000 wages fine on striker Romelu Lukaku as punishment for his recent controversial interview.
Lukaku caused a stir amidst Chelsea’s title fight when he clearly told Sky Italy that he was not happy at the London club.
The 28-year-old who only joined the European Champions about four months ago revealed that he would love to return to Inter Milan.
Lukaku who joined Chelsea on a £97.5million club-record deal from Inter last summer has scored just five times in 13 Premier League appearances so far this season amidst a battle with an ankle injury and Covid infection during the ongoing campaign.
He was subsequently dropped for the game against Liverpool last weekend by Thomas Tuchel whom he also claimed he was unhappy with over his unfavourable style of football.
Although Lukaku apologised on Tuesday for his comments in the explosive interview, Chelsea have nonetheless handed him a punishment as a result of the controversy caused by his comments.
Meanwhile, Tuchel, according to UK Sun, has recalled the Lukaku for tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham.
Tuchel said: “It would be a nice moment to start. He is very aware of what happened and what he created.
“He feels the responsibility to clean the mess up. Maybe we will have a bit of smell from it still, of course.
“He can handle it. He has no choice. He cannot expect now everybody to be super happy the very next day.
“I don’t feel personally attacked. I thought it was more an issue towards the club and towards our supporters.
“And by that, all the players and everybody in the building who gives everything for the club. I can understand that people are offended.
“Let’s say the spotlight got a bit brighter on him now. OK, we have to deal with it and we should not talk around it. It’s like this now.
“There will be some disciplinary action of course and he will accept it, of course. It happened. It’s not a small thing, it’s not the biggest thing out there and it doesn’t make a comeback impossible, absolutely not.
“This is what we prove now, but something happened and he will be fined and, of course, he needs to accept it.”
Tuchel added: “We were happy that we took the time that it needed to look calmly on it. This is what we did. He apologised and is back in the squad for today’s training.
“I hope the supporters can take this also and keep on supporting the team because we are in a moment where we really need the support.”