Chelsea Dealt Blow As Key Man Suffers Injury Ahead Of Everton Trip

Chelsea have been dealt a major blow with Thibaut Courtois suffering a knee injury in training ahead of Saturday’s trip to Goodison Park to face Everton, according to the Mirror.

Courtois initially picked up the knee injury during the warm-up before Chelsea’s Premier League opener against Swansea last month. He took to the field after receiving treatment before being sent-off shortly after half-time during the 2-2 draw.

The 23-year-old managed to complete the full ninety minutes during Belgium’s 1-0 win over Cyprus in their 2016 European Championship qualifier on Sunday and he returned to Chelsea unscathed following the international break.

However, the Mirror claim that Courtois then aggravated his knee problem during a training session at Chelsea’s Cobham training base on Wednesday afternoon and is now a major doubt for Saturday’s trip to Goodison Park.

No doubt Jose Mourinho and his staff will do their best to make sure he’s available to face Everton this weekend but worryingly for the West Londoners they could be without Courtois for the foreseeable future as the Mirror cite Belgium newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws as saying that the stopper is a doubt for their qualifiers against Andorra and Israel next month.

If accurate, it would be a huge blow to Chelsea as they’ve got a busy month that sees them play games across three different competitions. Should Courtois be ruled out for a month, he would miss upcoming matches against Everton, Tel-Aviv, Arsenal, Walsall, Newcastle, Porto and Southampton.

Asmir Begovic is on stand-by to deputise between the sticks and while the Bosnian is a solid goalkeeper, I’m sure Mourinho will be praying that Courtois’ injury isn’t as serious as is being made out back in his homeland.