The international break curse has struck the Blues early.

The curse that is the international break has struck early for Chelsea. The national teams are yet to take to the field but the Blues have already seen one of their players pick up an injury while on international duty.

That man is none other than Mateo Kovacic. The Croatian ace joined up with Vatreni ahead of their Euro 2020 qualifiers but has been forced to withdraw from the squad with a knock.

The Croatian national team announced that Kovacic has left the camp and will be replaced by Mijo Caktaš. He has reportedly suffered an inflamed Achilles tendon in his right leg. The extent of his injury remains unknown, however.

It’s also unknown if this is an aggravation of a knock he picked up during the 2-2 draw with Sheffield United over the weekend, with the former Real Madrid man coming off after 85 minutes. Nonetheless, Lampard will be paying close attention to the player’s fitness.

The Chelsea boss will be hoping that this was a mere precaution. N’Golo Kante has had fitness issues as of late and losing Kovacic to injury for a few weeks will be costly, given that the Blues have only one win so far in the Premier League and are about to kick off their Champions League campaign.