Reece James has suffered another hamstring injury and will be unavailable for Chelsea's Premier League match against Leicester on Saturday. His manager, Enzo Maresca, is uncertain about the recovery timeline. James experienced the issue during training on Tuesday, marking the latest setback for the captain, who underwent hamstring surgery in December, keeping him out until the final stages of last season. He re-injured his hamstring during Chelsea's pre-season tour in the United States and made his season debut at Liverpool on October 20th.
Maresca had previously mentioned that he planned to gradually reintroduce James by limiting his playing time, as he believed the player's body could not handle two games a week. After the Liverpool match, James started Chelsea's next two league games against Newcastle and Manchester United. Maresca then used him as an 82nd-minute substitute against Arsenal before the international break.
"Reece felt something and we don't want to take any risks for the weekend," Maresca said. "It's a hamstring. It was two days ago. Hopefully, it's not something long. He has to be out for sure this weekend and then we'll see. At the moment, we don't know how long."
Maresca added that with the密集的比赛安排, it was "probably difficult" for James to be available for the Conference League. Chelsea's next match in the competition is against Heidenheim next Thursday. James is the only player Maresca has definitively ruled out for Leicester, though he has other selection concerns. Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill were among the Chelsea players who withdrew from international duty due to fitness issues. Wesley Fofana and Malo Gusto also pulled out of their respective national team matches, while Roméo Lavia missed Belgium's game because of a hamstring problem.
Asked about Palmer and Colwill, Maresca responded in general terms. "Some of them are better, some we will test today," he said. "But overall, for sure, they are much better."
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