Ben Chilwell was one of the players who attended Tammy Abraham’s surprise birthday party last weekend, the event which breached coronavirus protocols and lead to he, Abraham and Jadon Sancho being forced to train separately from their England teammates for the first week of this international break
The trio are back with the main team now, and while the others featured last night, Chilwell was still out with what was being described as a non-Covid illness.
Gareth Southgate gave an update on the new Chelsea signing’s progress in his press conference after the win over Belgium:
“Ben reported to the hotel today. He did a training session on his own,” Southgate noted in quotes picked up by Goal.com.
“We’ve just got to assess where he’s at because he hasn’t been able to train through the week.
“So, there’s a little bit of assessment needed over the next couple of days but he is with the group now.”
It sounds like the days he missed, especially having only just returned from the injury he had over the summer, may have cost him some fitness.
From a Chelsea point of view, what would probably be ideal would be 30 minute cameo at the end of the game to get him fit for this weekend’s game against Southampton, without tiring him out.
Given Southgate’s hints that he might not be fully fit, perhaps that’s exactly what he will get.
