Reports earlier this week claimed that there was still “no sign of imminent return” for Reece James, who has been out since suffering yet another hamstring injury in our preseason match against Real Madrid six weeks ago.
And unfortunately, that indeed appears to be the case, with head coach Enzo Maresca confirming in today’s press conference that we do not have a specific timeline for the club captain’s return from his latest setback.
“His injury is a bit delayed and the most important thing for him — for any injury — is the player comes back when they are 100% fit and Reece is still out.”
“Unfortunately we don’t have an idea [when he will be back] at the moment. In terms of injuries in the past, we always hope we can find the right solution. In this case, he has been very unlucky because we planned to change him after something like 65 minutes [against Real Madrid] and he got an injury after 62 or 63 minutes. So it was a bit unlucky. Hopefully we can have him back fit as soon as possible.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Chelsea FC
It’s getting to be harder and harder to chalk up these injuries to just bad luck unfortunately. But hopefully James can return to full fitness at some point in the near future.
Malo Gusto has been deputizing more than capably, but he’s also (still) out at the moment, which leaves us quite shorthanded at the right back position. Axel Disasi had a bit of a disasi-ster last week in trying to fill in; Wesley Fofana did a bit better but perhaps youngster Josh Acheampong will get a chance tomorrow?
“I really like Josh. For me, potentially he can be a top player, a top defender for the future. With young players, I have quite a bit of experience and I like to modify them a little bit. Today, with young players; they can change very quickly. They can think they are so good, or so bad, so I think you need to moderate the way they train.”
-Enzo Maresca; source: Football.London
I guess that’s a no on Josh then.