Romelu Lukaku expected to miss ‘at least two to three weeks’ — report

The initial assessments on Romelu Lukaku’s ankle injury have been done, but the swelling was apparently still too much on Thursday for the scans to provide a true picture of the extent of the injury. Still, as reported by the Telegraph’s Matt Law, Lukaku is expected to miss two-three weeks, which would rule him out until after the November international break — and presumably give him those two weeks to help recover as well.

That’s not great, but it certainly could be worse. Lukaku’s not one to play up injuries and has been fairly durable over the past couple years, missing just a handful of games during his time at Inter Milan. He looked in a considerable amount of pain during his extended on-pitch treatment, was not able to return to the bench for the second half (unlike the hamstrung Timo Werner), and left the stadium on crutches.

In their absence (and Werner’s hamstring is surely a multi-week injury as well, especially as those tend to be extra-annoying strains), Kai Havertz will likely get a lot more work, as will hopefully Callum Hudson-Odoi. Those two combined promisingly for Chelsea’s third goal last night already. Plus there’s Mason Mount and Hakim Ziyech, and maybe we’ll get Christian Pulisic back soon as well?

Get well soon, Romelu (and Timo)!