Ben Chilwell withdraws from England squad as precaution after injury, illness

We’re just one month into the new season, but Ben Chilwell has already had to deal with a heel injury, COVID concerns, an unrelated illness, and now potentially another foot injury (or a flare up of the old one), so it’s probably the wisest course of action that he’s been withdrawn from the England squad ahead of their match tomorrow against Denmark.

The news was confirmed by both The FA and Chelsea this morning, the former providing absolutely no detail but the latter putting in an ominous line about Lampard issuing an “update on his fitness” in Friday’s press conference.

Initial media reports claimed that Chilwell, who had returned to training with the national team after sitting out last week due to breaking COVID-19 guidelines then coming down with an unrelated illness, had tweaked something or possibly had his heel (plantar fasciitis?) flare up again. (This is what happens when official sources don’t provide any solid information and everyone’s left trying to fill in the blanks.)

More recent reports have claimed that the move is purely precautionary, and given the size of the England squad (30 players for 23 matchday spots), keeping him there would’ve made little sense if he wasn’t going to play anyway. Both he and Kieran Trippier were withdrawn today in fact, the latter for a “personal issue”.

So, hopefully it is indeed nothing and Chilwell will be good to go for Saturday’s game against Southampton.