Former Chelsea star Joe Cole has expressed sympathy with Ben Chilwell after an injury suffered against Dinamo Zagreb threw the Chelsea defender’s World Cup hopes into doubt.

Cole told BT Sport: “Yeah horrible sight for Ben, I feel his pain. I had problems at the back end of my career and it is heartbreaking.

“As soon as it happens it’s a shooting pain. This close to the World Cup the best you can hope for is two or three weeks before you can get back on the grass and with a World Cup selection it’s really tough. 

“I really feel for him, again in a game where Chelsea were just seeing it out he played a strong team. Overall a win three points, a win top of the group for the club, but you do feel for Ben.”

Former Chelsea boss Glenn Hoddle added: “Normally sometimes with a hamstring you get a warning sign, it goes into a little contraction and that’s when you put your hand up but that one there just went didn’t it? His face went, you could see he just turns the ball over on the outside, as he touches the ball he grimaces he’s in real pain.

“That looks like a nasty one, I don’t understand how they haven’t carried him off because any weight-bearing and he’s got the other leg.

“But at the end of the day that’s such a blow for Chilwell, he’s had such a bad bad knee injury and he’s probably when you think about it rehabbing in a way, I know he’s back playing, but you normally get a compensation on the other side of your body when you come back after a long injury, but it’s such a blow. I’m gutted for him.”