Chelsea midfielder Kevin De Bruyne has been something of a forgotten man for his club recently and has suffered a further blow as he’s been taken to hospital after injuring his ankle whilst on international duty.
The 22-year-old was training with the Belgium squad ahead of Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Croatia when he hurt his ankle and Marc Wilmots, who has already lost the services of Vincent Kompany, must wait to find out just how bad De Bruyne’s injury is.
De Bruyne started two out of Chelsea’s first three games but following a poor showing against Swindon in the Capital One Cup he was omitted from the squad against both Steaua Bucharest in the Champions League and Norwich at the weekend.
Jose Mourinho was not pleased when questioned over his decision to leave De Bruyne out of Chelsea’s travelling European squad and declared that he hadn’t been impressed with the player’s contribution in the Swindon game and his work in training, so felt fully justified that he left him to train with the Under-21s and no-one can really argue with that.
Thankfully, it seems as though De Bruyne is the sort of player to take the criticism on the chin and put his head down to work harder, but may look for a loan move in January if he doesn’t earn more minutes on the pitch. He’s been a star for the Belgian team over the past 18 months so we know he is capable of better, but he does have a lot of competition ahead of him.
Hopefully the injury isn’t too bad and he’ll feature during the international break as he needs minutes on the pitch, and it’s beneficial for Chelsea as well as Belgium.
Update: As luck would have it, De Bruyne tweeted that he isn’t injured at all…
Just to say. I'm fully fit for the game against croatie. No injury at all
— Kevin De Bruyne (@DeBruyneKev) October 8, 2013
Source: Sky Sports
