Chelsea and England defender Reece James is set to miss the World Cup after visiting a specialist to treat his knee injury.
The right-back picked up the issue in the midweek win at AC Milan in the Champions League, and his club initially hoped it would only be a minor injury.
However, a scan revealed a more severe probem, as reported by Standard Sport, and James had a session with a specialist on Saturday.
On Saturday, Chelsea said in a brief statement on their official website: “Following the knee injury sustained in our away match against AC Milan, Reece has received treatment from the Chelsea medical department and visited a specialist this weekend.
“After consultation between all parties, Reece will now undergo a rehabilitation programme and is expected to be out for eight weeks.”
Chelsea have decided surgery will not be taken on James’ knee, reducing the length of his absence.
James tweeted: “The race against time is on… But we won’t give up.”
Graham Potter has vowed to look into Chelsea’s injury record amid similar absences for N’Golo Kante and Wesley Fofana.
“I don't think you should blame everything on luck, that's for sure,” he said ahead of the trip to Aston Villa on Sunday. “I think we can have a look and see what we can do better.
“Obviously, I've been here a few weeks so I haven't got the answers completely. But clearly, we want to always try to improve and that's an area that we can probably improve.”
