Ben Chilwell is facing three months out injured after Chelsea received the result of the player’s scan on his damaged hamstring on Saturday.
The left-back’s World Cup hopes are now in tatters and the England international faces another lengthy spell of rehabilitation.
‘Following the injury sustained in our recent game against Dinamo Zagreb, Ben has undergone a scan on his hamstring,’ Chelsea confirmed in a statement.
‘Results show that Ben has suffered a significant injury and the defender is unfortunately expected to miss the World Cup. ‘Ben will now begin a rehabilitation programme with the club’s medical department.’
Chilwell missed seven months last campaign with a cruciate knee ligament injury but battled his way back to full fitness in time to finally make his comeback in May.
Having regained full fitness, Chilwell looked certain to be included in England’s squad, which will be announced on Thursday, but he will now miss out after he went off injured against Dinamo Zagreb.
Chelsea boss Graham Potter revealed that Chilwell was upset in the dressing-room on Wednesday and confirmation of the severity of his latest injury will come as a blow to a player who had been hoping to make an impact in Qatar.
Speaking in the summer, Chilwell revealed that playing in the World Cup for England would be ‘the highlight of my life’.
‘I’ve dreamed of playing in a World Cup literally since I can remember and to know it’s just around the corner is more motivation than you can know for me to try and seal that [left-back] spot down,’ said Chilwell.
‘Not just for myself but for my family, everything – especially after the Euros in what was a difficult time for me. If I could go to the World Cup as the number one left-back, have a good tournament and hopefully as a team and we do really well and go all the way it would be amazing.
‘It would be the highlight not just of my career but of my life so over the next four, five months I’m just going to do everything that I can to try and make sure that is my spot.’
