Ben Chilwell has been ruled out of Thursday night’s game by Mauricio Pochettino.
The England full back was really finding his form and fitness before the international break – but two starts in a week with England on the back of a heavy load of minutes with Chelsea appear to have wiped him out.
His injury with the national team sounded minor – more of a knock than anything more serious. We weren’t surprised that he missed last weekend’s game, but we didn’t think it would be more than that.
But as Pochettino revealed, it was more serious than we assumed. The full back had to have fluid drained from his knee, and then got ill.
That has prevented him from training this week, and we can only assume will rule him out from tomorrow’s game, as well as Sunday’s match too, potentially.
It’s another blow to a squad which can never get itself fit, but we do at least have Marc Cucurella available to replace him, something which wasn’t true for many months when the Spaniard had his own issues.
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With Levi Colwill’s toe expected to keep him out for another couple of weeks, we’re back to the bare bones on the left of defence. Let’s hope Cucurella can make it through tomorrow’s game unscathed, it looks as though he’s going to play a lot between now and the end of the season.
Chilwell looks certain to go to the Euros with England after putting his fitness on the line for them in the last break. Now he needs to recover and manage himself carefully through these last weeks of the season.
