Chelsea take on Manchester United in the Premier League this weekend and N’Golo Kante along with Ben Chilwell are major doubts for this encounter.
While Kante’s injury doesn’t look to be serious but the latest updates coming out of London are claiming that Chilwell might have picked up an ACL injury.
At the time of writing this, there’s no official confirmation from Chelsea but the Telegraph along with various other publications are hinting that the left-back could be ruled out for the remainder of the season.
Ben Chilwell had to come off in the second half against Juventus after sustaining a knee injury and the manager had immediately put him in doubt for Sunday’s game against Manchester United.
The manager said after the 4-0 win: ‘Chilly has a sharp pain in the knee and he was in a lot of pain. Now he feels a bit better so we will have an examination tomorrow to be more precise. We hope for the best and it’s not too bad news.’
UPDATE: Ben Chilwell set to miss at least the rest of the year with suspected ACL damage. Chelsea prepared to delay a final decision on whether he can play again this season until the New Year. Story and details here: #cfc https://t.co/SgufofKeq7
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) November 24, 2021
Will Ben Chilwell play against Manchester United?
There’s no way Ben Chilwell will be fit in time to feature against Manchester United on Sunday and as the condition is right now, his manager will be hoping that this injury is not serious enough.
If the knee injury is pressing enough then it will require surgery which means the left-back will be out for the remainder of the season. But the Blues will surely not hurry into any such decision.
Suggests partial ACL tear (grade 2) w/ medical staff assessing healing of ligament & knee stability over the next 4-6 weeks and then decides on if surgery is needed or not. Makes sense from risk/reward perspective as Ben could still have surgery in Jan & be ready for next season
— Dr. Rajpal Brar, DPT (@3cbPerformance) November 24, 2021
Tuchel has Marcos Alonso as an adequate backup for the left-back/left wing-back role so we think the medical staff will wait for a few more weeks and do another scan before jumping to conclusions regarding a surgery.
They still have several more weeks to go before the January window reopens so we expect them to make a final decision before that(if the injury is that serious).
Alonso has done well whenever he’s played in the starting line up but in recent weeks Ben Chilwell had been in fine form so with him out of action, Thomas Tuchel will obviously be a bit worried.