Callum Hudson-Odoi joins N’Golo Kanté, Jorginho among Chelsea casualties of international break

Chelsea’s injury list seems to be growing by the day even though there are no Chelsea games scheduled for another week.

The latest to join that list is young Callum Hudson-Odoi, who picked up a shoulder injury in training with England U21s ahead of their game against Portugal tonight — a game that England would go on to lose 2-0, in yet another instance of Aidy Boothroyd’s team failing to live up to expectations. (Marc Guehi featured in defense, while Conor Gallagher got 20 minutes or so off the bench.)

While Hudson-Odoi’s injury is described as just a “knock” and he’s stayed with the team for now, it’s not exactly a positive development, especially as his form has declined over the past few weeks after making such a stellar start to life under Thomas Tuchel.

And Hudson-Odoi’s not the only new injury concern, even in addition to N’Golo Kanté’s hamstring, with Italy head coach Roberto Mancini confirming earlier in the week that Jorginho’s absence from the national team has to do with a knee problem he picked up even before the start of the break.

“We’re missing Jorginho, who wasn’t well. He’d taken a knock to the knee and he wasn’t fit to play in these games so we didn’t risk him.”

-Roberto Mancini; source: SI

Hopefully neither Jorginho nor Hudson-Odoi’s injuries prove too severe, and in the meantime, both Thiago Silva and Tammy Abraham are able to use these two weeks to finally recover from their thigh and ankle injuries, respectively. Kanté’s hamstring is already a big enough cause for concern...