Denmark defender Andreas Christensen withdrew on the morning of the game after insisting he was not ready to play despite being expected to start – he then disappeared from the team hotel

Chelsea have been left frustrated during contract negotiations as they made Christensen a fresh offer earlier in the season and believed they had reached agreement with the former academy graduate.

But Christensen switched agents last year and Chelsea refused to change the terms of the offer which has caused a major stand-off and has ultimately led to his departure.

Chelsea boss Tuchel admitted publicly that he left Christensen out of his starting line-up earlier in the season because of the protracted negotiations.

But with Antonio Rudiger and Christensen set to leave on free transfers this summer, Tuchel has used them both in recent weeks and it is hard to believe the Dane would not have played given Chelsea’s injury problems.

Trevoh Chalobah played on the right of Chelsea’s three man defence on Saturday but Christensen’s unexpected and last minute absence definitely came as an unwanted distraction.

Chelsea had huge problems in the build-up to the game as Kai Havertz was ruled out after a fitness test on Friday because of a hamstring problem.

Timo Werner also missed out and, even though he was on the bench, he complained of a hamstring issue during the warm-up and could not feature