ENZO MARESCA claims the heat is hitting Chelsea’s Club World Cup bid because it is “almost impossible to train”.
The Blues boss cut short his final training session ahead of their decisive Group D game with ES Tunis as temperatures neared 40C.
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And with Philadelphia under a ‘Code Red’ severe weather alert, it is still likely to be well over 30C when they play in the early hours of Wednesday morning — at 9pm local time.
Chelsea used giant fans to spray cold water over sweltering players during a brief tactical session.
Maresca said: “It is almost impossible to train because of the weather.
“We are just trying to save energy for the game.
“This morning’s session has been very, very short.
“It’s been just about tomorrow’s game, planning for tomorrow and that’s it.
“It’s not easy in these conditions with these temperatures. We are going to try to do our best.”
A draw would take the Blues through to the knockout stages with a likely date against Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich on Saturday.
Chelsea captain Reece James missed training due to illness.
Maresca said: “It’s difficult to work in these temperatures but we are trying our best and will try to win tomorrow.
“It’s impossible to do a normal session, otherwise you don’t save energy for the game. So the session this morning was quite short.
“We are not training, almost. We are just doing very, very, very short sessions.
“We try just to be clinical and do the right things that we need for game preparation. We have the cooling break during the game which helps a little.”
Nicolas Jackson did not join training as he is banned after his red card in the 3-1 defeat to Flamengo.
