Chelsea have confirmed Reece James will be ruled out for up to a month after suffering a setback in his return from a knee injury in the Blues’ victory over Bournemouth.
It was against AC Milan in mid-October that James suffered knee ligament damage after a clash with Theo Hernandez. The injury resulted in the 23-year-old missing out on the World Cup and having to undertake recovery work while many of his teammates were representing their countries in Qatar.
James returned to training earlier this month during Chelsea's week-long stay in Abu Dhabi. He then stepped up his recovery by featuring in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Brentford at Cobham last week. That was evidently enough to convince the club's medical team and Graham Potter that James was ready to start against Bournemouth.
