Chelsea star Eden Hazard is reportedly at risk of missing the start of next season after fracturing his ankle in training with Belgium.
The 26-year-old was all set to feature for his national team in Monday’s friendly with Czech Republic before a World Cup qualifier against Estonia on June 9.
However, as reported by The Sun, he will now miss those games and faces the prospect of three months on the sidelines after suffering a fractured ankle which will require surgery.
The Belgian FA have since confirmed that the problem surfaced during training on Sunday and no other player was involved in the incident, but that will be of little consolation to Chelsea or the club’s supporters.
While there is still a long way to go this summer for him to recover and go through rehabilitation, the biggest setback will be the fact that it will significantly disrupt his pre-season schedule.
In turn, he won’t start the new campaign fully fit, and that will force Conte to bring him on slowly as he’ll be behind his teammates and may take a while to really get going and reach the level of form he displayed this past year.
It’s a huge setback for the Premier League champions as they’ll want to make a quick start to the defence of their title next season, but it appears as though they may have to do so without one of their top players.
Update | Medical imaging showed that @hazardeden10 has a fracture in his right ankle #belcze #estbel #roadtorussia
— BelgianRedDevils (@BelRedDevils) June 4, 2017