Chelsea winger Jamie Gittens has left the England U-21 camp after suffering an ankle injury on Friday.
Gittens, who joined Chelsea in a deal worth up to $70.5 million (£52 million) last year, managed just 39 minutes of his side’s 4–2 win over Kazakhstan before being forced off with a problem that ultimately saw him leave the stadium in crutches.
Manager Lee Carsley subsequently confirmed Gittens will return to Chelsea for further checks on the injury, ruling him out of the U-21s next two matches in the process and further extending his bitterly frustrating start to the 2026–27 season.
“Jamie got a kick on his ankle,” Carsley said. “We never take any risks.
“With the age of these players we don’t ever keep them in camp to see how they are. He will go back.”
Gittens’s Nightmare 2026–27 Continues
The fact that Gittens, who turned 22 in August, is still playing at U-21 level at this stage in his career speaks volumes of how his time at Chelsea has not gone to plan.
Chelsea parted with a huge fee to sign Gittens from Borussia Dortmund last summer, only for the winger to become one of many expensive arrivals to struggle at Stamford Bridge. His debut season yielded just five Premier League starts before being curtailed by injury in February.
He had failed to win over former manager Enzo Maresca during his first six months, scoring just once in 27 appearances before his injury, and has continued to struggle to convince Xabi Alonso following the new boss’s arrival in the dugout this summer.
The arrival of Morgan Rogers, coupled with the fact Alonso’s system does not call for natural wingers, means Gittens has not yet played in the Premier League in 2026–27. But perhaps the biggest concern is the limited minutes sent his way in the Carabao Cup.
Ten minutes off the bench against Luton Town was followed by a rare start against Leeds United, in which Gittens was subbed at halftime after a miserable first 45 minutes. Chelsea scored all six goals of their comeback victory without him on the pitch.
While Chelsea will obviously hope for some positive news from scans on Gittens’s ankle, Alonso will feel confident that his team is equipped to cope without the 22-year-old, who was heavily linked with a move to Roma during the summer as part of the failed negotiations to sign midfielder Manu Koné.
Gittens follows Cole Palmer in withdrawing from an England camp, with “load management” cited as a reason for the attacking midfielder’s absence. Striker João Pedro also missed Brazil duty through an injury picked up shortly before the international break.
