On Friday, in the wake of the announcement of his new six-year contract, Reece James told reporters that physically he was in a “really good place”, able to consistently play two-three games a week after several years of battling hamstring injuries and not being able to stay consistently fit.
On Monday, head coach Liam Rosenior confirmed that James “felt his hamstring” at the end of Saturday’s game, and will be out for a while. Rosenior didn’t put a specific timeframe on it, but reporting around the situation
is talking about this summer’s World Cup being in jeopardy for the Chelsea captain.
“He’s felt something in his hamstring at the end of the game against Newcastle. Really frustrating and disappointing one for us, we don’t know the full extent of that injury. But that rules him out for tomorrow’s game.
“[The extent of] it could be [a number of weeks]. With a hamstring injury, it’s never great. And for Reece, hopefully we can just get him scanned, we can find out the full extent and then we know more.”
-Liam Rosenior; source: Football.London
Chelsea had been extra careful with James after all those previous injuries, and that was paying off this season with 36 appearances across all competitions (most since 2021-22), a couple goals, and being arguably our best player during the entire campaign. Hopefully this is just a minor setback rather than a full return to square one.
