The £97.5million star has accepted a fine of around one
week’s wages - £325,000 - and apologised for giving an interview in which he
claimed to be desperately unhappy.
Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has recalled the striker for
tonight’s Carabao Cup semi final first leg against Tottenham and urged the
striker to start repaying the club and the fans with goals.
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.”
Lukaku told Italian TV that he was unhappy at the way he was
playing under Tuchel and that he wanted to return to former club Inter Milan.
It led to hardline Tuchel axing his marquee signing from the
squad for last Sunday’s crunch game against title rivals Liverpool.
The pair met on Monday and agreed to move on after Lukaku
explained he did not mean to cause offence and said sorry.
Tuchel said: “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.”
Lukaku issued an apology last night via the club’s official
channels, saying: “To the fans I’m sorry for the upset I caused. You know the
connection I’ve had to this club since my teenage years, so I totally
understand you guys being upset.
“It’s up to me now to restore your trust and I’ll do my best
to show commitment every day on the training ground and to try and win games.
To the manager I apologise and also to my team-mates and the board because it
was not the right moment.
“I want to move forward and start winning football games. I
totally understand [why the fans are upset]. I should’ve been much clearer in
my message to be totally honest.
“The interview was about saying goodbye to the Inter fans,
it was not about trying to disrespect the fans and the football club, the
owner, my team-mates and the manager.
“They made a lot of effort to bring me back here and I
wanted to come back here, I’ve been on a mission since I left. I totally
understand the frustrations of the fans but now it’s on me to show that my
commitment is 100 per cent and I’ll do that every game.
“They don’t need to question [my commitment]. I always said
I wanted to come here and to be successful, that’s why I signed a five-year
deal.
“I think Chelsea is a club that equals success. All the
players that come here come for winning and I have a special passion for this
club. I want to achieve that with this club, I want to win here for many years.
I want to make sure I show my commitment every day.”
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