Ipswich Town winger and England Under-21 international Jaden Philogene set to miss rest of Premier League season with knee ligament injury

Kieran McKenna has revealed that Jaden Philogene is highly unlikely to feature again for Ipswich Town this season.

The attacker had to be replaced just five minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute during last weekend’s 2-2 draw at Chelsea with a knee injury.

A subsequent scan has revealed ligament damage, meaning that the 23-year-old is set to miss Ipswich’s last six Premier League fixtures – starting with Sunday’s home encounter against Champions League semi-finalists Arsenal.

“He’s seen a specialist this week and as we thought it’s a MCL injury,” said Town boss McKenna.

“It doesn’t look like he needs surgery but it’s pretty much definite he won’t play again for us this season.

“It’s a big disappointment for us and for him. It’s a challenge for the group in terms of it’s another one (injury) in that position. That’s three right wingers – one a MCL, one a ACL and one an Achilles.

“But also for Jaden because he arrived later than what we all would have wished and it’s really hard as we’ve spoken about before to get up momentum and speed.

“He was working really hard and he’s been trying his best here at the training ground, so we’re disappointed he won’t get a chance to try and build some of that momentum before the end of the season.

“He’s really professional, he’ll do his rehab well and he’ll come back stronger next year.”

While Philogene is set to be sidelined for the rest of his club’s campaign, it remains to be seen if he can recover in time to feature for England at this summer’s UEFA European Under-21 Championship.

The tournament, which is being held in Slovakia, is set to get underway on June 11.

“The timescales aren’t definite and of course there’s an international tournament in the summer that he would have liked to be a part of,” added McKenna.

“I don’t think anything is 100 per cent yet. I can only say that it’s very unlikely he’ll play for us but hopefully he’ll be ready in pre-season certainly.”

Meanwhile, Omari Hutchinson and Kalvin Phillips have not returned to training and will therefore also miss the Arsenal clash, but Liam Delap has taken a full part in this week’s sessions and is in contention to regain his place in the starting line-up.