Reece James does not feature in Chelsea’s friendly with Aston Villa today.
The Blues face their Premier League counterparts in Abu Dhabi but are still without a number of absent players, due to either a lack of fitness or the World Cup.
Graham Potter has explained that James was not yet in full training when Chelsea travelled for the warm-weather camp and it remains to be seen if he can make enough progress on his knee injury to feature against Villa.
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Wesley Fofana was described by the manager as not too far behind in his recovery from a knee problem. Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s availability is also uncertain.
Missing out are N’Golo Kante, Kepa Arrizabalaga and Ben Chilwell due to injuries.
But Carney Chukwuemeka is not fit to play despite shaking off a hamstring issue and returning to training.
The likes of Cesar Azpilicueta, Eduoard Mendy and Christian Pulisic are not expected to play even though their World Cup campaigns are over.
Young players such as Omari Hutchinson and Cesare Casadei could be given runouts by Potter at some point.
Starting Chelsea XI: Bettinelli; Brooking, Humphreys, Chalobah, Cucurella, Webster, Jorginho, Hall, Hutchinson, Broja, Aubameyang
