Timo Werner is prepared to miss the remainder of RB Leipzig’s Champions League campaign in order to move to Chelsea as early as possible and will be removed from the club’s European squad.
Despite months of heavy interest from Liverpool, Chelsea swooped in to all-but seal a €60m deal for Werner at the beginning of June, with only the medical and final paperwork left to arrange.
Werner has found the net 31 times in 42 appearances in all competitions this season – including four goals in eight Champions League outings to help Leipzig into the quarter finals for the first time in the club’s short history.
The competition has been pushed back as a result of the coronavirus and is poised to resume at the last 16 stage on the weekend of 8-9 August, with the final on Sunday 23 August at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz.
According to Bild journalist Christian Falk, Werner will waiver Leipzig’s remaining Champions League fixtures in August as he ‘wants to go to London in July’.
Bild have reported (via football.london) that Werner has been removed from Leipzig’s Champions League squad as he will be a Chelsea player by the time the competition resumes.
After completing the remaining last 16 legs at the beginning of August, a condensed version of the competition is to be played over 12 days in Lisbon using Benfica and Sporting CP’s grounds for the fixtures.
Werner scored the decisive penalty in his side’s 1-0 Champions League last 16 first leg victory over Tottenham, before Leipzig comfortably booked their place in the quarter finals with a 3-0 victory in the home leg.
Atalanta, Atletico Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain are also safely into the last eight, with Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Napoli, Juventus and Lyon still to play their last 16 second legs.
Should the forward not stay with the Bundesliga outfit to see out their Champions League campaign, he will have just three games remaining for Leipzig before completing his move to Chelsea.
Julian Nagelsmann’s side have fixtures against Fortuna Dusseldorf and Borussia Dortmund before the curtain comes down on their season with a trip to Ausburg on 27 June.