Thomas Tuchel gives fitness updates on Reece James, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and more | OneFootball

Chelsea are closing in on a fully fit squad for the rest of this season.

Ruben Loftus-Cheek was taken off injured midway through the defeat against Southampton, while Reece James was left out of the squad entirely with an illness.

But according to Thomas Tuchel’s quotes picked up by Football.London, the pair will be ready for tomorrow’s game against West Ham. Unfortunately N’Golo Kante will be out for several more weeks, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and fellow new signing Denis Zakaria need some time before they’re ready too:

“[James and RLC] are back in training and are both available. So in the moment, it’s only N’Golo out. Everyone else is available. We had a group of 19 players [in training]. Then it will be 21 players with Auba and Denis.”

Overall, we expect to see a fairly similar team to the one that lost to Saints, with Reece James coming back in at right wing back. Wesley Fofana has a greater chance to play given he will have had a couple of training sessions under his belt, but even that feels unlikely.

So once again, it’s down to the coach to get better performances out of the players available to him.