Loftus-Cheek out of Europa League final, beginning of next season with suspected Achilles injury — reports

UPDATE:

It looks like Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s injury scenario is the worst one possible: an Achilles tendon rupture.

Simply put, there is little chance we will see him before the start of next season.

Devastating, indeed.

PREVIOUSLY:

Last night’s charity friendly had to accomplish two things.

One, raise money and awareness for the club’s anti-Semitism campaign, a project that’s near and dear to Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich’s heart (as he wrote in the pre-match programme). Mission accomplished with $4m raised and certainly plenty of attention paid to it ... if not for all the right reasons as the friendly failed hard at the second objective, to avoid any injuries.

New England Revolution’s Tajon Buchanan limped off 37 minutes into the match after appearing to hurt his arm in an awkward fall. And then, in the second half, Ruben Loftus-Cheek had to be helped off by the physios after picking up some sort of injury in the lower left leg. He had been on the pitch less than 25 minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute.

Information about the injury has been seemingly extra slow and hard to come by. Marcos Alonso, Not-M.D., was not hopeful when he gave his unqualified assessment after the match.

“I think they [the medical staff] still don’t know [what the issue is]. He has a little bit of pain and it doesn’t look very good to be honest but fingers crossed he can be back as soon as possible. I think it’s the achilles. He was on his own [when he went down injured]. We’re all very sad about this as it was very important not to get any injuries in this kind of game. We hope it isn’t too bad.”

-Marcos Alonso; source: Mail

Dr. Alonso’s verdict has not been supported by any available reports, most of which are going with “suspected ankle injury” (Telegraph) or a more confident “ankle injury” (BBC).

There are some who agree with Alonso however, and that’s extra terrible.

One thing that everybody agrees on is that Loftus-Cheek is likely to miss the Europa League final coming up in two weeks in Baku, Azerbaijan against Arsenal.

Following last night’s game, Chelsea now have about four days off before training resumes at Cobham and the team begins to prepare for the final. Loftus-Cheek’s injury only adds to the concerns posed by N’Golo Kanté’s status (trending towards probable, at last check). Antonio Rüdiger and Callum Hudson-Odoi had already been confirmed as out for the season’s last competitive, must-win match.