Chelsea have been forced back into an all-too-familiar situation after Reece James suffered another injury setback during training.<\/p>\n
The right back has been ruled out again after the club confirmed he is dealing with a knee problem. James has since undergone what Chelsea described as \u201cminor\u201d surgery on the knee, meaning another recovery period has begun for the captain.<\/p>\n
No formal timetable has been issued by Chelsea, but reports around the setback suggest supporters will not see him for some time. The expectation is that James will spend about three months on the sidelines, which would keep him out until January. That timing may reflect caution as much as the injury itself, with Chelsea expected to move carefully before allowing him back.<\/p>\n
A return in mid-January would place his comeback shortly after the midpoint of the Premier League season. Sunderland on Jan. 16 would fit that three-month window, although meetings with Leeds United, Nottingham Forest or Manchester United may offer more realistic targets for his first appearance back.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s planning without James is complicated by the uncertainty around where he is now most likely to play. He is naturally a right back, but under Xabi Alonso he has spent only 22 minutes there, with the manager preferring him in central midfield. Enzo Maresca used him in a similar way last season as the club continued to manage his fitness issues.<\/p>\n
That shift looked as if it might become more permanent after Chelsea\u2019s summer business. Marco Palestra arrived from Atalanta as a right back option, while the club placed a heavy price on Malo Gusto. Even so, neither has become a regular starter in that role, with Pedro Neto moving from winger to wingback.<\/p>\n
Chelsea have cover at right back, but James\u2019s absence is likely to be felt in midfield. The collapse of Lamine Camara\u2019s Deadline Day move has left Alonso\u2019s squad a little short in that area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea must cope without Reece James again after knee surgery and a possible three-month layoff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[1836,242,180],"class_list":["post-21794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}