by England defender Ben Chilwell’s World Cup hopes could be in jeopardy after he injured his hamstring in the final stages of Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League.
Blues boss Graham Potter admitted he was worried about the left-back after he stopped minutes before the final whistle at Stamford Bridge.
Chelsea had made a comeback thanks to goals from Raheem Sterling and rookie Denis Zakaria after Bruno Petkovic gave the Croatian side the lead, but Chilwell’s injury ruined the evening.
Potter, who told BT Sport it was a hamstring problem, added in his post-match press conference: “(It’s not) great. Obviously when it stops like that it’s a concern so we have to scan, but it doesn’t look good at the moment.
“I think it’s a huge blow to us on an otherwise positive evening. It’s a hard blow to see him stop like that, it’s not a great show.
“So we cross our fingers when we get the scan it’s not bad, it may not be serious, but at the moment we have to cross our fingers. But we are clearly disappointed ”.
Chilwell did not start during his team’s 4-1 at Brighton over the weekend and the club were managing their workload after reacting to a serious anterior cruciate ligament injury.
Potter believes the setback could hurt the defender’s hopes of joining Gareth Southgate’s squad for the World Cup, with England playing the tournament’s first match in Qatar against Iran on 21 November.
“I think you should say that (which is a concern for the World Cup),” Potter said.
“Obviously I don’t want to say anything else, but when a player stops like he did, and he felt it, then it’s never good.
“He didn’t play over the weekend. It was thought that she could play tonight and have enough time to recover for the weekend.
“So we tried to manage him, he never played the three games in a week, he had to have the preparation, it went well for him.
“This is what makes it very frustrating. It’s a hard blow for us and a hard blow for him and unfortunately he won’t be the only one to be hit like this in this period because October has been incredibly demanding, the games we had to play, but that’s what it is. “
Zagreb manager Ante Cacic was proud of his players, despite their exit from Europe after finishing last in the group, having entered the game in need of a win and a defeat for Salzburg to reach the play-offs of the Europa League.
“I think the final result and fourth place in our group are realistic, the reputation of all the other teams is very high. Chelsea and Milan always play in these competitions, “she said.
“I think Dinamo have had very brave performances throughout this whole competition.
“Our players are proud and they should be proud of how they played during this competition.”
