Chelsea captain Reece James suffers recent harm blow

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Chelsea captain Reece James has suffered yet another injury and will miss the team’s Premier League match with Leicester City this weekend.

James missed the start of the season with a hamstring injury but returned against Liverpool last month, playing nearly an hour of the Premier League defeat. He also started games against Newcastle United and Manchester United and came off the bench against Arsenal before last week’s international break.

But the 24-year-old defender is back on the treatment table after picking up another injury in training this week.

“It’s a hamstring issue, a muscle problem,” manager Enzo Maresca said on Thursday. “He felt something small and we don’t want to take any risks for the weekend.”

Maresca added: “It was two days ago. He has to try and avoid as much as he can but sometimes things happen even if you want to avoid that. Hopefully he can be available for the next one but he is not available for this one.”

James is considered among the outstanding talents in English football, but injuries have derailed his career. The right-back played only 11 games for Chelsea last season and made 24 appearances the year before. He has picked up just 16 England caps, and was not selected for Euro 2024 after missing so much of the campaign.

Maresca is set to continue with French full-back Malo Gusto in the starting XI.