Chelsea have received a piece of bad news as midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek has been ruled out for up to one year after the England international picked up and injury in a friendly match.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is facing up to 12 months out after suffering a devastating ruptured Achilles injury. Midfielder Loftus-Cheek collapsed in agony after damaging his left Achilles in Chelsea’s friendly at New England Revolution and left the Gillette Stadium on crutches with his foot in a protective boot.
He had been on the pitch for only 20 minutes after being introduced as a half-time substitute. The 23-year-old, who misses Chelsea’s Europa League final against Arsenal on May 29 and England’s Nations League campaign next month, now fears he could be out for the whole of next season due to the severity of the injury.
Chelsea winger Callum Hudson-Odoi suffered the same injury last month and is optimistic of returning in time to be involved in pre-season training. However, Hudson-Odoi is understood to have suffered a partial rupture while Loftus-Cheek’s was a full rupture — leading to the gloomier outlook and concerns the latter will have a significantly longer spell out of action.
Loftus-Cheek could not put any weight on his left foot and needed the help of two members of the Chelsea staff to leave the pitch after he suffered the injury. The England midfielder had scans on the injury in America before Chelsea returned to England on Thursday.
He was due to have further tests in London, with an official timeline being put on his recovery once he has received confirmation of the results. Understandably, Loftus-Cheek was left frustrated — not just by the timing of the cruel blow but also the circumstances, an avoidable injury coming in a friendly game. He had finally managed to overcome a niggling back problem and established himself in Chelsea’s first team.
As important as the cause was — Chelsea helped raise £3.1million for the fight against anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination — losing another key player to injury still dampened the occasion. Head coach Maurizio Sarri had already questioned the timing of the post-season friendly that was the brainchild of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich and which New England’s billionaire owner Robert Kraft dubbed the ‘Final Whistle on Hate’.
The Italian’s fears would only have increased when he saw the pitch his millionaire players were about to be risked on, a hastily laid down, patchy and slow astro-turf surface. Chelsea’s players were seen joking about the state of the pitch when they first stepped on to it, pretending to roll it up like a carpet.
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Ruben Loftus-Cheek came out of the dressing room on crutches..
Get well soon @rubey_lcheek 🙏🏼💙#CFC
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5:53 AM - May 16, 2019
Sarri ended the night clearly furious when his worst fears were realised and he lost a third important member of his first-team plans to injury ahead of the Europa League final. Defender Antonio Rudiger, with a knee problem, and Hudson-Odoi will also be missing in Baku.
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