Just when Tuchel needed all of his firing power, the London giants lose a key attacker to injury.

Chelsea are preparing for the toughest 90 minutes of football in their 2021/22 season, with the Premier League giants set to travel to Real Madrid for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League showdown.

The defending champions were drawn against the Spanish giants for the quarterfinals of Europe's most beloved club competition, with Thomas Tuchel 's men suffering a horrible 3-1 defeat at home thanks to a brilliant Karim Benzema hat-trick. This means the London giants will head to Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday needing to overturn an extremely difficult deficit.

And to make things works, the London giants will be without one key striker. That man is none other than Romelu Lukaku, Chelsea's marquee summer signing who despite all his struggles, remains Tuchel's best out-and-out no.9.

The Belgian ace picked up an in injury in the build-up to the Southampton game, which the Blues won comfortably 6-0. After the game, their German tactician confirmed that the former Inter Milan sensation will not recover in time for the trip to Madrid.

"Callum Hudson-Odoi out, Ben Chilwell out, Romelu Lukaku will not travel," the former PSG boss admitted, as per Goal.

Lukaku wasn't expected to start Tuesday's Bernabeu clash. Tuchel has favored Kai Havertz as the man to spearhead his attack, with the German attacker performing well recently.

However, with Chelsea needing to pull off a comeback, Thomas needed all of his firing power available. In the first leg, Romelu came on as a second-half sub with the game 3-1 down, and twice came close to scoring thanks to his aerial presence.

It's not all bad news ahead of the UEFA Champions League tie as club captain Cesar Azpilicueta, who missed the Southampton trip after contracting COVID-19, has recovered and is back in the mix.