Enzo Maresca's brutal honesty on Club World Cup conditions spells bad news for Chelsea

Enzo Maresca has revealed that Chelsea have barely been able to train at the Club World Cup due to the extreme heat. The admission does not bode well for the Blues' make-or-break clash with perennial Tunisian champions ES Tunis on Wednesday.

Chelsea have been based in Philadelphia, where a heatwave has prompted a severe weather warning. Temperatures on Monday reached 37 degrees celsius. That left any chance of Maresca's players being able to work on the weak points from their disappointing 3-1 defeat against Flamengo last week in tatters. The Italian says it has become 'impossible' to train and emphasised that Monday's session was extremely short.

Maresca complained: "It's almost impossible to train because of the weather. Now we are trying just to save energy for the game. This morning's session was very, very, very short. It's not easy with these conditions. We are going to try to do our best."

NBC meteorologist Bill Henley said today that he expects to see "record-breaking" heat in Philadelphia over the next few days. It was also extremely hot last Friday when Chelsea were beaten by Brazilian side Flamengo in the city's Lincoln Financial Field venue.

Afterwards, defender Marc Cucurella bemoaned the conditions. He said: "Flamengo also have a good team, they are first in the league with a lot of international players and are in the middle of their season and physically did better than us in this moment.

"Some of our players had a few weeks off and now we need to restart again so it's a bit tough for the European teams. They also played in the heat and maybe these things we can control better in this moment and we can learn, but it's better it happens now in these stages rather than in the later rounds.

"The conditions are not the same as well for European teams and it's not an excuse. It's a reality and it's one of the reasons. But this is the tournament we need to play, we cannot make excuses and if we win the next game then we will go through."

Chelsea's Club World Cup campaign in the blazing heat may not be the best preparations for the 2025-26 season. Players from the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United were all able to have lengthy summer breaks to recharge their batteries.