Chelsea's request has been rejected by the Premier League
Chelsea’s request has been rejected by the Premier League (Picture: Getty)

The Premier League have rejected a request from Chelsea to postpone Sunday’s fixture against Wolves due to Covid-19 absentees.

Five of the six Premier League games due to take place on Saturday were called off because of the spread of coronavirus among squads.

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel confirmed on Friday that Romelu Lukaku, Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell had all tested positive for Covid-19.

With more players potentially ruled out against Wolves as a result of being deemed close contacts, Chelsea made a request to the Premier League for the match to be postponed.

But the request was turned down on Sunday morning, according to The Telegraph, leaving Chelsea having to pick players lacking match fitness for the trip to Molineux.

At his pre-match press conference, Tuchel admitted he may be forced to make ‘crazy decisions’ to cope with the absentees in the squad, possibly starting Mateo Kovacic and N’Golo Kante following their injury lay-offs.

‘Mateo trained for the first time today,’ Tuchel said. ‘But, my honest opinion, Jorginho is a doubt because he’s in pain, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is also a doubt because he’s in pain.

‘We may need to start with Mateo and N’Golo on Sunday. Would that be fair? Would that be possible? I don’t know.

‘We have to find the balance. Maybe we are forced to do crazy stuff that we would not normally.’