Ben Chilwell could be out for up to three months with hamstring tear — report

It’s not officially confirmed at this point, but the initial prognosis on Ben Chilwell’s hamstring injury is rather disastrous — for us, for him, for England.

According to the Telegraph, he could be sidelined for 12 weeks (3 months) with a high grade strain, as both Chelsea and Chilwell are “expecting” the results of the scan to come back bearing the worst news.

Chilwell apparently told Mason Mount at the end of yesterday’s meaningless game that he felt the muscle “pop”, which would indicate a complete tear and thus the expected multi-month absence. While minor strains can take just a few days or a couple weeks to heal, high grade strains take several weeks if not months, and with a higher chance of reinjury as well.

Devastating, to say the least — especially given the timing, the circumstances, and the atrocious decision-making surrounding yesterday’s game. This is perhaps the most needless injury we’ve suffered since Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s Achilles tear, and at least there was some meaning to that charity friendly (not necessarily a sporting one, but rather a humanitarian one close to the then owner’s heart instead).

(And if we actually needed the “confidence boost” of beating Dinamo Zagreb in order to tackle the next three season-defining games, then we’re in deeper trouble than I had already imagined.)

While missing the World Cup will be a “crushing” blow to Chilwell himself, to use the Telegraph’s phrasing, the World Cup break does mean that we at least won’t feel the full impact of this injury. Still, Chilwell being out for the next three games, and then probably all of January as well, is far from ideal. Marc Cucurella has not been great since his big-money move from Brighton, so hopefully he can rediscover his form immediately. In the meantime, we’re going to need Graham Potter to also come up with some actually viable tactics that don’t rely on wing-backs.