Thomas Tuchel reveals he has apologised to Conor Gallagher

Gallagher is ineligible to play for Crystal Palace in the FA Cup semi-final

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has revealed that he has spoken, and apologised, to Conor Gallagher after the midfielder was ruled out of this weekend’s FA Cup semi-final.

Gallagher is ineligible to play against his parent club at Wembley and despite the Eagles’ best efforts to make a request to allow him to play, it was subsequently denied by the Blues.

Patrick Vieira was left frustrated by the decision

The decision has left Palace boss Patrick Vieira frustrated and he even criticised the Chelsea decision in a recent pre-match interview.

“It’s not the best rule because the only one who will lose is Conor,” he said.

“There’s a semi-final, it’s a really exciting game about how you will manage yourself and prepare yourself to play that game, then there’s playing that kind of game and the importance of it.

“It’s an experience the player is missing and I’m disappointed for him. He has played all the games so far and if there’s somebody who deserves to be in the semi-final, it’s him because of his performances, so I’m disappointed he won’t be able to play.

“The decision for Chelsea to send him on loan is to play these kind of games. We have as a group an opportunity to play an important game and that game would have given him more confidence and belief.

“I feel for him because he wanted to play in that game, every player would want to play in that game.”

Tuchel apologised but admitted he didn’t want to change the rules

However Tuchel has since responded and confirmed he has met with Gallagher and apologised to him for denying him the opportunity to play.

“I had the chance to speak to Conor and I could see his frustration,” said the German.

“We met some weeks ago by coincidence in a restaurant and we had a chat. The subject came up and I apologised because I know how competitive he is.”

However despite admitting he had apologised, Tuchel said that he didn’t want to change the rules they had previously agreed to.