The Aston Villa and England midfielder Fabian Delph will have surgery on his injured shoulder and could be out of action until the end of December.
Delph, who started for Roy Hodgson’s side in the victories over Switzerland and Estonia in the Euro 2016 qualifiers, fell awkwardly in training on Tuesday and has been unable to train ever since.
He was sent for a scan on Friday amid fears it could be dislocated and the club confirmed he now requires surgery. The 25-year-old is expected to miss England’s next qualifier against Slovenia at Wembley next month and the friendly in Scotland.
The news will come as a bitter blow to the Villa manager, Paul Lambert, who is likely to be without the midfielder for up to 11 Premier League matches before Christmas and is also missing the defender Philippe Senderos for Saturday’s trip to Goodison Park on Saturday. The captain Ron Vlaar is expected to return after six weeks out, though, while the Belgium striker Christian Benteke is also in the frame to start his first game since rupturing his achilles in March.
“Christian is pushing to start,” said Lambert. “I said at the time that the international break would come at a good time for him, because that gave him another couple of weeks to train with the team, and we had a [behind-closed-doors] game here against Leicester that he scored in so that gave him a lift as well.”
