Reece James injury: Surgery decision, return date,…

Reece James injury: Surgery decision, return date, games missed, World Cup doubt, Potter stance

Reece James hobbled off the pitch against AC Milan on Tuesday night after seemingly suffering a knee injury. The Chelsea right-back was substituted midway through the match after attempting to carry on playing.

The scare could not have come at a worse time for Chelsea and England, with a packed schedule for Graham Potter in the next month ahead of the mid-season break for the World Cup. The Blues currently lack a like-for-like replacement for James in his position, while the Three Lions may already face losing Kyle Walker after he underwent surgery, putting further emphasis on the importance of the Chelsea academy graduate.

What happened to James?

The defender fell to the ground clutching his knee following a collision with Milan's Theo Hernandez a few moments earlier.

He tried to soldier on and fight through the visible pain of said knock. But after Rafael Leao waltzed past him to curve open the Blues' backline, James' evening was over.

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What James said

James sent a message out on Twitter with his' fingers crossed' for positive news, which will have fans worried with such an important player for club and country potentially ruled out in a pivotal period. He wrote: "Fingers crossed it's not a bad one. Love for all the messages, I appreciate you all."

What Potter said

After the match, Potter did not reveal the extent of James's injury and said that it would be a couple of days until the results of a scan: "We're hoping Reece will be OK. It will be 24, 48 hours to find out, so it's too early to give you anything more than that," Potter explained.

Will he need surgery?

James will not need surgery on his knee injury. Chelsea released a statement saying: "Following the knee injury sustained in our away match against AC Milan, Reece has received treatment from the Chelsea medical department and visited a specialist this weekend.

"After consultation between all parties, Reece will now undergo a rehabilitation programme and is expected to be out for eight weeks."

This should, in theory, increase the speed of his recovery, but the fight to be ready to play any part in the World Cup will still be tight and Gareth Southgate will have the deciding vote on this.

The current expectation is for him to miss up to eight weeks of action, which would be all but the entire tournament, but not needing surgery could reduce this to six weeks if things go smoothly. James will not play for Chelsea again before they break up for the World Cup on November 12th, meaning the 22-year-old will miss all of the next six games.