Unfortunately it brings a season of progress for Loftus-Cheek to a premature conclusion. The midfielder, who featured for England at last summer’s World Cup, has played 40 times for Chelsea in 2018/19.



Perhaps his individual highlight was the hat-trick he scored against BATE Borisov at Stamford Bridge in October. Indeed it was in the Europa League that the majority of his starts came, appearing from the off in eight of our 14 games to date. The 23-year-old’s contributions have played a major part in us reaching the final in Baku later this month. He was imperious in the away leg against Eintracht Frankfurt and scored in the reverse fixture back in London in our toughest test yet.

Having featured largely off the bench in the Premier League earlier in the season, Loftus-Cheek’s performances earned him a spot in the starting XI in five of our last seven games as Champions League qualification for next year was confirmed.

He netted six goals in the league, among them a last-minute winner against Cardiff in March, and a contender for the Chelsea Goal of the Season when he finished off a sublime team move against Fulham. In all he scored 10 goals, by some distance the best return of his career to date.