Marco van Ginkel's season is in danger of ending before it truly began, with Chelsea fearing he may have suffered a cruciate ligament injury while playing Swindon in the Capital One Cup—as Neil Ashton reports in the Daily Mail.
The Dutch international appeared to land awkwardly and twist his right knee after colliding with Swindon's Alex Pritchard, who's on loan from Tottenham.
Remarkably, the 20-year-old tried playing on for a couple of minutes, before conceding the severity of his knock and eventually being replaced by Ramires—who also ended the match injured.
Chelsea assistant coach Steve Holland commented on the incident, saying: "It’s too early to say, but it doesn’t look good for Marco. We’ll have to wait for the results of the scan, but we have at least two casualties from this evening."
ESPN captured further insight from Holland, who added:
It's too early to say (if it's a bad one) but let's hope that's not the case. It didn't look good as he came off so early in the game. We'll have to see the results of the scan, we'll know more on Wednesday.
There are growing concerns that Van Ginkel's season may be all but over, per Metro, weakening Chelsea's midfield and putting any hopes the Dutchman had of appearing in the 2014 World Cup in considerable doubt.
Marco van Ginkel faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering horrible injury tonight http://t.co/90WkvCEGQn #cfc #chelsea #vitesse
— Dutch Football (@football_oranje) September 24, 2013
With Ramires also potentially sidelined, extra responsibility will fall on the likes of Frank Lampard and John Obi Mikel as the Blues' core suddenly looks a little depleted.
Having revealed his dislike for the notion of David Luiz as a midfielder to the Guardian, this is perhaps a scenario Jose Mourinho may be forced to revisit, before potentially adding to his roster in January.
Van Ginkel being lost for the season (as apparently feared) would be horrible. Might not be a regular but a talent there to develop.
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) September 24, 2013
Clearly, this comes as a huge blow to Van Ginkel, who had struggled to make an impact during his early Chelsea career.
He had yet to show the Stamford Bridge crowd his true potential, starting just one Champions League match and making a pair of late cameos in the Premier League.
With the fiercely competitive nature of Chelsea's squad, he's going to find it far harder to stake a claim if, as reported, he now faces a lengthy time on the sidelines.
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