Chelsea manager Emma Hayes says that her players were unrecognisable as a result of their mental anxieties around COVID-19 as they exited the UEFA Women’s Champions League with a 4-0 defeat to VfL Wolfsburg at the AOK Stadion this evening.
The Blues lost Ann-Katrin Berger and Drew Spence following positive PCR tests ahead of the trip to Germany and Hayes admitted that the remainder of her squad were filled with worry about also potentially testing positive and not being able to spend time with their families over Christmas.
When speaking in the post-match press conference, Hayes explained the worrying situation which her players find themselves in 12 months on from the last major COVID outbreak at the club.
“We had 20 cases of COVID last year which saw my entire team struck off and unable to go home (at Christmas) and see their families,” Hayes said. “A few days ago, we had two players struck down with COVID and we know inevitably when we land tomorrow there will be positive cases.
“Our heads are all over the place, we are human beings. The stress, the anxiety, the worry of having to perform in a game when you are thinking that you just want to go home to see your family, you’ve been to an Olympics, ‘oh no another Christmas alone’. I am not making excuses for the players but the last few days, we’ve been all over the place with worry that we have had to play this game.
“COVID is real and when you are in a team environment, it spreads like wildfire. I am gutted for the players because we all know that performance doesn’t represent my team. I’ve got players being sick in there, some with diarrhoea, they’re exhausted and maybe some of that mental anxiety plays a part in it.
“This was déjà vu, it feels like we are here again 12 months on after a really, really bad COVID outbreak at the same time last year and I think that played a major part in our performance tonight.”
Hayes went on to comment on the mentality of her team further explaining that the players were unable to blank out their mental anxieties for the 90 minutes as they slipped to a heavy defeat.
She added “I want my players to be able to go and see their families (over Christmas). Unfortunately, we were unable to separate those anxieties from the performance, I didn’t recognise my players tonight, I thought we were all over the place.
“If we land tomorrow and take our PCR tests and we have a mass outbreak of COVID then what do you want me to say? We’ve gone out in the Champions League and we are gutted about it but I can honestly say that I didn’t recognise my team tonight, I’ve never seen a performance like that from them.
“Stress and anxiety is real and while I wish that they could have separated it to perform, we were nowhere near being in a position to win.”
Chelsea are scheduled to play one further fixture before Christmas against West Ham United at Kingsmeadow on Sunday.
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