The Blues defender has had surgery on an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury that he sustained during the club's first training session since the Club World Cup on Tuesday (05.08.25).

Colwill played a major role last season as Chelsea secured Champions League qualification and won both the Conference League and Club World Cup but is now expected to be absent for between six and nine months.

Chelsea coach Enzo Maresca suggested that the club could bring in another defender in the transfer market to replace Colwill.

He said: "It depends - we will wait and see.

"You know in our way, how important Levi has been. I spoke with him yesterday and I told him that if we achieve what we achieved last year, it is also because of him - and he was a main player for us."

Colwill had expressed hope that Chelsea could challenge in both the Premier League and Champions League this season as they stunned PSG 3-0 to win the revamped Club World Cup last month.

He said: "I said at the start of this tournament that our plan is to win it [Club World Cup] and people looked at me as if I was crazy.

"So I'm going to say the exact same thing now going into the Premier League and Champions League.

"This is the biggest trophy I've ever won. I think the Club World Cup will be bigger than the Champions League and we were the first team to win it.

"It was a statement victory and, in the future, if we keep winning trophies then everyone will give us the love that we deserve. But we'll only know that in the future. I think we're ready and we'll see next season."