Tuchel admits Mount decision will go down to wire before Juventus clash

Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel is preparing to make a last-minute call on whether Mason Mount can feature against Juventus.

The Blues' second Champions League test of the season sees them travel to Turin for a Group H clash on Wednesday night.

Tuchel will hope to maintain his immaculate recent record in the competition by building on the 1-0 win over Zenit Saint Petersburg a fortnight ago.

Mount played 90 minutes in the victory over the Russian side but subsequently suffered a knock and played no part in the 1-0 defeat by Manchester City on Saturday.

Chelsea sorely missed the 22-year-old's composure as they were soundly beaten in the midfield battle by Pep Guardiola's side.

Mason Mount was taken off after 45 minutes in the 3-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur

Juventus do not boast City's wealth of talent and they have endured a poor start to the season which leaves them mid-table in Serie A.

Nonetheless, they have many excellent options in the centre of the park including Rodrigo Bentancur, Manuel Locatelli and Aaron Ramsey.

Tuchel knows Mount's involvement could tip the balance in the challenging away trip and he wants to give the England international as long as possible to prove his fitness.

"I absolutely don't know, we have to see," Tuchel told Chelsea's official website of whether Mount can feature. "In the end it will be a matter of hours as to whether he makes it or not."

In Mount's absence, Ruben Loftus-Cheek was given another run-out against the Premier League champions, with Tuchel insisting he was fully deserving of his appearance from the bench.

"I was happy with Ruben, otherwise he could not have had the chance to come on," said the German manager.

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"He played against Zenit and he played against Aston Villa, and now he played this 15 minutes. He could not be involved without deserving it."

Tuchel also hinted Chelsea would look to dominate possession against Juventus by lamenting the number of long balls hoofed to Romelu Lukaku against City.

"It's about making opponents underperform. City did this to us, they had high ball wins," said Tuchel. "We talked about the high pressing but with our decision-making I never felt fully confident we would escape the pressure with short passes.

"I never felt fully confident when we decided to go for long balls. We have Romelu upfront who we can put long balls into, but without that genuine belief and confidence, and also without the moments where you really hurt your opponent, it gets more and more difficult, and this is how the game went on Saturday.

"When we escaped the pressure, which was hard enough, we took bad decisions in playing into our strikers. When we played it into our strikers, they took bad decisions in the first contact and lost the ball."