Key Chelsea player has operation on potential season ending injury – devastating blow to Blues | OneFootball

It’s the news we’ve been dreading since this morning when we first head talk of a problem from Enzo Maresca in his press conference – Levi Colwill’s injury is an ACL tear and he will be out for most of the coming season.

Worst fears about Colwill problem confirmed

Ben Jacobs gets the scoop on Levi Colwill’s devastating injury.

Maresca reported this morning that his starting centre back had picked up an injury which required a scan, and Ben Jacobs has got the scoop this evening on exactly what the problem is. That has now been backed up by the BBC.

It’s just so devastating – it came in quite literally the first session back of the new season. This is likely to be blamed on the Club World Cup. Of course these injuries can happen anytime, but it’s hard to not be tempted to draw a connection between the two.

Colwill and his teammates played a long, gruelling season, then flew to the USA for another high intensity tournament. After just a few weeks break, he’s back to action and gets this issue on the first day back. Is that just a coincidence?

We suspect we will see a few other players who have played as much football as Levi in the last year suffer similar fates.

Colwill could miss full season and World Cup

ACL injuries can rule out players for up to 9 months, meaning even a small setback could rule Colwill out for the entire season. At best we can expect him back playing in March or April.

It’s also a huge blow to the defender’s hopes of playing at the World Cup with England next summer. Fellow first choice defender Wesley Fofana’s fitness can’t be trusted either, so we suspect a new centre back is now on the agenda in the transfer market.