Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois has been ruled out of action for 10 weeks after undergoing surgery on a meniscus injury.

The goalkeeper kept two clean sheets while on international duty with Belgium over the past two weeks but reportedly suffered the injury to his knee during the first training session back after returning to club duty.

After undergoing surgery on the meniscus issue, Courtois will now be out for at least 10 weeks with some reports suggesting he is unlikely to return before Christmas.

Chelsea were handed a pretty comfortable Champions League group but the bigger concern will come in the Premier League. While new stand-in goalkeeper Asmir Begović is highly rated he simply isn’t at the same level as Courtois and Chelsea will have to make do. The Blues are already eight points adrift of Manchester City after just four games and being without their first choice goalkeeper will hardly help.

In the summer Arsenal clinched the signing of experienced Chelsea legend Petr Čech, who was second choice at Stamford Bridge last season. The Czech international has already delivered one man of the match display for the Gunners and, in light of Courtois’ injury, the £11m deal looks even worse for Chelsea.

Čech will return to Stamford Bridge in just over a week when Arsenal face José Mourinho’s side in the Premier League. Needless to say, the Portuguese will be less than pleased to see Čech behind the Arsenal defence and it will be interesting to see whether or not Eva Carneiro will be on injury watch.