Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Reece James will be in the squad to face Brentford as the German coach welcomes back a number of players following the international break. Tuchel was without six players for the trip to Middlesbrough in the FA Cup ahead of his stars joining their national teams.
James, alongside Andreas Christensen, Saul Niguez, and Kepa Arrizabalaga, have all returned to training in the early stages of this week after not joining up with their international sides. Christensen initially met up with Denmark, but his rehabilitation kept him out of their matches, and the 25-year-old was involved in Tuchel's sessions with the other stars not to compete.
However, Callum Hudson-Odoi's Achilles struggles have continued, and Tuchel noted a lower back problem for the 20-year-old. While Ben Chilwell's rehabilitation continues, with the former Leicester ace expected to be out for the season.
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Tuchel said: "Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ben Chilwell will miss the game tomorrow. Callum still feels his Achilles a little bit and has some lower back problems. Everyone else was in training. It's always a challenge to come back after these breaks because everybody was all around the world. Everybody had different experiences, some very successful, some of them not, some of them played a lot, some of them jet-lagged. It's always a challenge, you're never 100% sure where you are, and we try to regroup, and we start tomorrow. Reece is in the squad tomorrow.
Tuchel is sure to also reflect on the fitness of Thiago Silva and Christian Pulisic due to the scale of their journies to compete. The latter played in three USA matches as they qualified for the World Cup, but the Blues boss is more relaxed over Silva, who returned to training on Thursday after being kept on the bench for Brazil's second game.
The German coach said: "Thiago is a bit different than Christian because he didn't play the third match for Brazil. He came back one day earlier and didn't have the same jet lag. For Christian, we have to decide. He didn't train today. We gave him a recovery session. He was here but very tired with the jet lag and time difference. So we have to figure out of it makes sense to play him tomorrow and for how many minutes."
