Chelsea winger Pedro set the record straight about his future at the club, insisting on misinterpreting his interview with a Spanish radio show earlier this week.
As it stands, the 32-year-old attacker will become a free agent on July 1, due to the fact he has yet to agree on fresh terms with the Blues over a contract renewal.
Former Spain international has fallen down the squad pecking order at Stamford Bridge under Frank Lampard this season, featuring in just nine Premier League games in total.
Lampard insisted that Chelsea were in talks with Pedro over a new deal back in February, but negotiations appear to have stalled amid the coronavirus outbreak which has called a temporary halt to fixtures across all of Europe’s major leagues.
On Wednesday translations of a report published by Spanish broadcaster, Cadena Ser quoted Pedro as saying he plans to “terminate” his existing contract at Chelsea this summer.
However, Pedro is adamant that his comments were mistranslated and says that it is his “wish to be able to stay” at the Bridge for the foreseeable future as he awaits a sit down with club officials.
“As many people know, my contract is up in May,” the winger told Chelsea’s official website. “But I still haven’t spoken to the club about whether or not it will be renewed and whether I’ll carry on.
“I’ve seen loads of messages from Chelsea fans saying goodbye and thanking me for the time I’ve spent here, which I appreciate, but I’d like to tell all the fans simply that my current contract is coming to an end but I still have to talk to the club.
“I don’t know whether I’m going to play here, or not. That talk is yet to come. Yet for no other club I wanted to join. I’m from Chelsea. I just got a job. My dream is to stay here but we definitely do not know what’s going to happen. I got to talk to the band, so let’s see what’s going on.
Pedro is playing his part in the fight against Covid-19, having donated 3,000 protective screens to hospitals in Spain to help contain the spread of the illness.
The Chelsea star is hoping to contribute even more to an ongoing relief effort via his foundation in the coming weeks, and he is grateful to the medical workers who are “confronting this situation day after day”.
“We are working together with a lot of hospitals, not just in the Canary Islands, but also in Madrid, Barcelona and other parts of Spain,” Pedro added.
“We have begun some good projects which include distributing protective screens for all the nurses, doctors, security guards, and police officers. We’re trying to distribute the biggest possible number of protective masks for all these professionals, not only in the Canaries but in the areas where there have been the most cases, in Madrid and Catalonia.
“We’re also trying to help many people through this initiative by supplying food for healthcare workers. Given the long hours they are working, it’s sometimes hard for them to get access to food, so we’re delivering meals to workers at different hospitals in various locations. These are some of the first initiatives we have but we’re open to getting involved with many others.
“I will try to help the maximum possible number of people so that once more we can say thank you to all the people who are confronting this situation day after day and who have to contend with the virus, and with the people who have been affected on a daily basis. We want to thank them once more in this way for the work they are doing every day.”
