Reece James ‘ruled out for three months’ after all, following latest scans — reports

Reece James suffered an ankle injury while playing for England U20 against Chile in the final group game of the Toulon tournament, that much is clear. But since then, there have multiple reports about the extent of the injury and the associated recovery period.

Earlier it was reported that the injury was not as serious as initially feared — stretchers and oxygen generally mean bad things — and was only a small ligament strain rather than a broken ankle. But this morning, the Evening Standard’s Simon Johnson reports that the latest scans have revealed that while the ankle isn’t broken, the ligament has suffered severe damage and the possibility of a surgery is very real. In a way, this is worse than a break, which tends to heal easily and cleanly and more definitively than a ligament.

If Reece is ruled out for three months, he would miss the entire summer, the entire preseason, and probably the start of the new season as well.

Johnson’s report matches a report from @CarefreeYouth from the day before, too, who usually has his eyes and ears in the right places. There’s been no official word from the club yet.

After an immensely successful loan at Wigan, James was expected o stake a claim in the Chelsea senior squad, but unfortunately this injury puts those (already tenuous and fairly hopeful) plans in serious doubt.

Here’s hoping for a fast recovery!

(Ed.note: unfortunately, Chelsea aren’t doing anything at all to clear this up, and are only adding to the farcical “media watch” section a rumor/report from The Sun, of all places about the club’s own player! Embarrassing.)