Chelsea get the worst injury possible news as their most dynamic attacking full back ruled out | OneFootball

After a long international break, Chelsea clearly couldn’t wait to get back into action – so much so that they sent out Enzo Maresca to do his Friday press conference on a Thursday.

The fact that we’re playing in the early kick off on Saturday means that decision makes more sense – but the bad news is that after two weeks of rising hope and expectation, Maresca returned with bad news.

He has just explained that Reece James has an injury, albeit minor, which will keep him out of the game against Leicester, and possibly beyond:

“We have just one injured player, that is Reece. Unfortunately he felt something small and we don’t want to take any risks for the weekend,” Maresca said in his presser, before going into more detail on what had been hurt:

“Hamstring. It’s a muscular problem. We don’t want to take any risks for this weekend. Hopefully it’s not something long.”

Chelsea captain Reece James (Photo by: Michael Regan)

Gut punch for Chelsea fans hoping for Reece renaissance

We had just been writing that this was a great chance for James to come back fresh after a break and to bring the attacking impetus down the flanks this team has lacked and that he can provide when he’s at his best.

Now, it turns out that instead of banking two solid weeks of rest and recovery and getting back to top form, it seems without us knowing the club captain has been going the opposite direction. It doesn’t sound serious, but it’s quite a swing from “ready to return and rested and dominate in top form” to “actually has been injured and not training.”

It puts more pressure on Malo Gusto, who didn’t join up with the France Under 21s, and Marc Cucurella, who was on duty with Spain.