Maurizio Sarri is adamant star forward Eden Hazard will not leave Chelsea this season amid reported interest from Spanish giants Real Madrid.
The Belgium playmaker has been consistently linked with Real Madrid and expressed an interest in leaving Stamford Bridge after a stellar World Cup.
Thibaut Courtois made the same switch earlier this month and has urged his international team-mate to follow him to the European champions.
Sarri, though, insists Hazard has not divulged any desire to move on from the club he joined in 2012.
“I’m sure Eden will be with us for this season.”
After featuring off the bench in the season-opening 3-0 win at Huddersfield Town, Hazard is expected to be considered for a start in Saturday’s visit from Arsenal.
“He has an unusual injury. Nothing serious,” Sarri said of the midfielder.
“He has a pain near the knee. Not the knee, but near it. I hope he will be able to be on the pitch in the next week.”
Chelsea remain focused on keeping Hazard in spite of Madrid’s interest, and hope to tie him to a new long-term extension before he enters the final year of his current contract next summer. For now though, Sarri has no doubt over his commitment to the cause.
“Hazard is with us,” he added. “I have spoken with him three, four times for everything & he never said something about the market. He’s very happy to stay here.
“I think it’s impossible [to sell now] because here the market is closed, so we can’t change such important players now.” Chelsea will, however, make use of the Aug. 31 transfer deadline elsewhere in Europe to either sell or loan out some of the players on the fringes of the first-team reckoning.
Kurt Zouma’s season-long loan move to Everton will be confirmed imminently, while reports in Italy claim Tiemoue Bakayoko is close to completing a season-long loan move to AC Milan