Frank Lampard hopes Carney Chukwuemeka can have “the best of both worlds” after Chelsea withdrew him from the England squad for the Under-20 World Cup.
Standard Sport exclusively revealed that the 19-year-old was pulled out of the squad, following injuries at Chelsea to both Mateo Kovacic and N'Golo Kante this week.
Lampard has admitted that Chukwuemeka was disappointed with the decision, but hopes he can join the Young Lions after helping his club in their last three matches of the season.
Lampard told reporters: “He’s a Chelsea player and we’ve got injuries in that area. The situation with Carney is he’s come into a club, a big move for him, and this season hasn’t managed to get so many minutes [due to the size of the squad], and settling in at a new club.
“Hopefully there’s opportunity in these three games for him. He’s our player, and we have lost players we need him to stay.
“There’s a possibility he can join up at the end of the season if the team get through into the next stages. It might be the best of both worlds in an ideal way but it’s our player and we had to make that decision.
“I felt a bit for Carney, he was keen to go but at the same time what happened meant he had to stay.”
Chukwuemeka will be in contention to face Manchester City on Sunday with eight senior players out injured, including Benoit Badiashile, Kalidou Koulibaly, Ben Chilwell, Marc Cucurella, Reece James and Mason Mount.
