Reece James suffers another injury blow as Maresca confirms defender will miss Leicester clash | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca confirmed Chelsea captain Reece James will be ruled out of this weekend’s fixture due to injury.

Chelsea face Maresca’s old side Leicester on Saturday, as the Foxes former manager returns to the King Power Stadium for the first time since leaving last summer.

Maresca confirmed that James will be the only definite absentee ahead of the weekend, but also added that it is a short-term injury.

He said: “We have just one injured player, that is Reece [James]. He felt something small and we don’t want to take any risk.

“It’s hamstring, a muscular problem. We don’t want to take any risks for this weekend and hopefully it’s not something long.

“He is the only one for sure who is injured. The rest, some of them are better, some of them are still a doubt and we need to wait. Today is the first session we do with all the players [returning] from international. So we will see after today’s session.”

Ahead of this weekend’s fixtures, Chelsea sit third in the Premier League, nine points behind league leaders Liverpool.

Maresca has made a promising start to his time in West London, but insisted there is room for improvement.

He added: “I said many times, we can attack better and we can defend better. But in the Premier League, there are only four or five clubs that have conceded less than us. So that means with defending, we are doing quite well.

“If people think we are not going to concede, I’ve said many times that is PlayStation, not football. We are going to concede goals until the end. For sure, 100%. There are just four or five clubs that have conceded less than us. So I don’t know why people are thinking we are defending bad.

“If you ask me, for sure, 100%, there are things we can do better, no doubt, in both situations.”