Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku sorry and aiming to ‘clean mess up’, says Thomas Tuchel

Romelu Lukaku has apologised for his controversial interview in which he revealed his unhappiness at Chelsea and is available to play in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Tottenham.

Blues boss Thomas Tuchel revealed Belgium striker Lukaku feels responsible and determined to “clean the mess up”, after an interview with Sky Italy that was released last Thursday but conducted three weeks previously.

Club-record signing Lukaku was stood down for Sunday’s 2-2 Premier League draw with Liverpool, but crunch talks on Monday have cleared the air.

Tuchel has insisted he is now satisfied Lukaku did not intend to cause such deep damage and has accepted the £98million man’s apology as fully genuine.

“First of all we were even in the background happy that we took the time that it needed to look calmly on it and talk calmly,” Tuchel said.

“He apologised and is back in the squad for (Tuesday’s) training.

“For me the most important thing was to understand and clearly understand and believe that it was not intentional.

“He did not do this intentionally to create noise in front of such a big game.

“And it’s the very first time even he has behaved like this.”