Chelsea could miss the critical services of their English midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek in the Europa League final after the budding sustained an ankle injury during a charity friendly in the USA.
The 23-year-old went down clutching his left ankle in the first half of Chelsea’s 3-0 win over New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium.
Ross Barkley scored twice either side of an Olivier Giroud header in the comfortable win in Foxborough.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek is a doubt for the Europa League final after suffering an ankle injury during Chelsea's friendly with New England Revolution.
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 16, 2019
Chelsea qualified for the Europa League finals after thrashing out Germany side Eintracht Frankfurt in penalties after the match ended in a 2-2 aggregate after normal and additional time, they play against Arsenal in the final in Baku on Wednesday, 29 May after the gunners aw out their former boss side Valencia in a record 7-3 aggregate.
Loftus-Cheek scored in the second leg of the Blues’ Europa League semi-final against Eintracht Frankfurt and has been directly involved in nine goals in his past 15 competitive appearances for Chelsea.
The Chelsea vs New England Revolution Wednesday’s friendly raised £3.1m ($4m) for organisations who combat hate crimes.
Prior to the game, Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri had expressed his concerns about travelling to the US so close to a major European final. The Sarri ball sensational manager was not present during the penalty shoot-out against Frankfurt where disturbed Eden Hazardnailed the last goal for Chelsea to qualify for the finals.
Maurizio said that he could not watch the penalties due to his superstitions which do not even allow him to step into the ground when a match is ongoing.