The Football Association has confirmed that Chelsea captain Reece James has left the England squad after suffering an injury during Saturday\u2019s victory over Liverpool.<\/p>\n
England doctors examined James and confirmed he had picked up an injury, prompting his withdrawal from international duty. He has been replaced in the squad by versatile Manchester City youngster Nico O\u2019Reilly. The FA statement did not specify the nature or severity of the problem.<\/p>\n
An Instagram post after the Liverpool game showed a gruesome cut on James\u2019s leg, but whether that is linked to his withdrawal remains unclear. The 25-year-old has endured a run of fitness setbacks in recent seasons, though he has been gradually rebuilding his availability under Maresca.<\/p>\n
Under Maresca\u2019s management James started just 12 Premier League games in the coach\u2019s debut season as the manager sought to protect his captain. This term he has already started four matches and amassed nearly half as many minutes as he did across the entirety of the previous campaign.<\/p>\n
Hamstring issues have been the recurring concern surrounding James, and supporters are awaiting a clear medical update on his condition. The international break provides roughly two weeks for treatment and rehabilitation, and Chelsea hope to have their captain fit for the trip to Nottingham Forest on Oct. 18.<\/p>\n
Chelsea followers are also seeking clarity on the fitness of Mois\u00e9s Caicedo. The midfielder was omitted from the Ecuador squad for fitness reasons, although the prevailing view is that he is being rested during an international window composed of two friendlies.<\/p>\n
For now the club and fans must wait for formal medical bulletins. The immediate priorities are assessment, a recovery plan for James and confirmation of Caicedo\u2019s status, as the Blues manage body and squad availability during an early season period that already demands rotation and caution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FA medical checks have forced Reece James out of England duty; Chelsea await clarity on his fitness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3590,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[1006,1089,1118],"class_list":["post-3591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-captaincy","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-reece-james"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3591","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=3591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}