Chelsea captain Reece James has suffered another setback after injuring a hamstring in training, Blues manager Enzo Maresca has revealed.
The 24-year-old missed much of last season after undergoing hamstring surgery, which was designed to help him overcome a series of injuries, but returned to action last month.
Maresca played down concerns over a long-term layoff but revealed that James will miss the next game at Leicester on Saturday.
He said: “We probably only have one injured player and that’s Reece.” [James] who unfortunately felt something small in training two days ago and we don’t want to take risks over the weekend.
“It’s a muscle problem, a hamstring problem. We’ll see, we don’t know for how long, for sure.” [we want him fit for longer]. At the moment it is not happening but we hope it will happen soon.
“He’s out this weekend, but I hope he can come back soon. It’s probably difficult for him to be available for the Conference League.” [next Thursday]But let’s hope it’s soon.”
Players such as Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto and Romeo Lavia are available despite retiring from international duty last week.
But there is caution around Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández, with Maresca saying his starting eleven “will not be 100%”, and those traveling from international duty in South America completed only one training session on the Friday before the match.
