Antonio Rudiger will leave Chelsea this summer, Thomas Tuchel confirms

Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger will leave the club this summer, manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.

Rudiger has spent the last five seasons at Stamford Bridge after joining from Roma in 2017, but has been strongly linked with a move this summer.

The German international missed Chelsea's win over West Ham on Sunday with a groin problem, but Tuchel was asked about his player after the game.

"The situation seems to be that he leaves the club," Tuchel told Sky Sports. "He informed me some days ago in a personal talk.

"I have the feeling that we gave everything over many months. Me personally and also the club gave everything. Now we enter in a situation where we could not fight any more because of the sanctions and yeah, Toni said he will leave the club this summer."

Tuchel claimed things might have been different without the recent sanctions against Chelsea following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

"We would have at least had the chance to keep on fighting," he said. "Since many weeks, our hands are tied. I don't know what would have been the outcome. But that's his decision.

"It's not a nice one for us, but we don't take it personally. He was absolutely brilliant, correct, and on the pitch a key figure. And he will stay a key figure until the end of the season, but for sure, very disappointed of course."

And Tuchel went on to pay tribute to the defender, who is expected to sign for Real Madrid this summer.

"(We will miss him) a lot, a lot," he said. "He's a huge influence on the dressing room. He's a give to guy other people courage, he's a guy who everybody is a bit afraid of. He's that kind of player.

"But let's focus on the sports... he's a guy to play 50, 55 games, 90 minutes at an oustanding level. He was the top defender in the last one and a half years with me and I have nothing but respect for what he did.

"He needs to keep on going until the end, but then we have to find another solution."