Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has admitted that none of his forwards want to wear the club's No. 9 shirt for fear that it is "cursed".

The jersey is vacant following Romelu Lukaku's return to Inter Milan on loan back in June - and looks set to remain so for the 2022/23 season.

Scoring just eight Premier League goals last term, Lukaku was the latest in a long line of players to struggle with the squad number on their back.

Fans have joked about the ill-fated jersey for years, but now it seems all in the Blues' dressing room genuinely want to avoid it because of its dreadful track record.

Speaking at a press conference on Friday, per ESPN, Tuchel said of the No. 9 shirt: "It's cursed! People tell me it's cursed! It's not the case that we leave it open for tactical reasons or for some players in the pipeline to come in and naturally take it.

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"There was not a big demand for the number nine. Players sometimes want to change numbers but surprisingly nobody wants to touch it.

"Like, everybody who is longer than me in the club, tells me 'you know he had the nine and didn't score and he had the nine and he also did not score.' Now we have a moment, nobody wants to touch the number nine."

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Are Chelsea's players right to be afraid of the No. 9 shirt?

Those of you who aren't superstitious might be scoffing at the idea of a squad number being cursed. However, for much of the last two decades, playing in the No. 9 shirt for Chelsea has pretty much doomed your season.

We've already touched upon Lukaku's dismal 2021/22 season, but Tammy Abraham also struggled in the jersey before him.

The England international looked to have shaken off the bad vibes associated with the No. 9 shirt when he notched 18 goals in his first campaign wearing it.

Tammy Abraham at Chelsea

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 04: Tammy Abraham of Chelsea during the Pre Season Friendly match between Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge on August 04, 2021 in London, England. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

The following season, though, his form (and fitness) completely deserted him. Sold to Roma last summer, he quickly rediscovered his shooting boots when free of the shackles of Chelsea's most infamous jersey.

The likes of Alvaro Morata, Gonzalo Higuain, Radamel Falcao and Fernando Torres had all previously proven themselves to be elite-level strikers. However, from the moment they arrived at Stamford Bridge and pulled on the No.9 shirt, they each fell to pieces.

Chelsea even randomly gave the number to defender Khalid Boulahrouz (2006) and midfielder Steve Sidwell (2007). It didn't do much for either of those players.

A search for Chelsea's last truly successful No.9 will take you all the way back to the start of the century - when Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink donned the shirt while smashing 23 goals in 2000/01 to claim the Premier League Golden Boot.

The Dutch frontman departed the club in 2004 and nobody since has brought that same level of form to Chelsea's No. 9 shirt.

Assuming that no incoming Blues player is brave enough to risk the wrath of the jersey, the number will remain used this season - just as it was in 2014/15 and 2016/17.

Nobody fancied it then, either.