London (AFP)
Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel confirmed that his international defender, Reece James, will miss the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, because he has not recovered from his “big” thigh muscle tear.
James has been out of action since he was injured in the match that his team drew with Brighton 1-1 in the twentieth stage of the league at Stamford Bridge in London on December 29.
Chelsea, the Champions League champion last season, will travel to Abu Dhabi after meeting its guest Plymouth on Saturday in the fourth round of the FA Cup, and will play the fourth round in the Club World Cup next Wednesday with Al Hilal Saudi Arabia, the Asian champion, or Al Jazira, the UAE representative of the host country.
“Reese has not joined the team’s training yet, so he is not ready this weekend, he will not travel with us to Abu Dhabi because he has not returned to training,” Tuchel said in a press conference on the eve of the local cup match.
He added that he had enough experience to prevent him from “overconfident”, to determine the date of the player’s return.
“The diagnosis confirmed right away that it was a major injury, and from there we need to be patient. It’s a muscle tear, it’s always a tough injury and he’s a very strong player physically.”
“Unfortunately, he later contracted the flu, and that was a setback in the past few days in the process of returning to the team,” he added.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek will also miss Saturday’s match due to injury, while American Christian Pulisic and Brazilian Thiago Silva will be absent due to their participation with their countries’ teams in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
Chelsea failed to bolster the two full-backs in the January transfer window after Ben Chilwell suffered a knee injury, the end of his season and James’ continuing muscle injury.
The London club cut off the loan of its Brazilian player Kennedy, who occupies several positions, including a left back and a left midfielder, to his compatriot Flamengo, after he failed to cut the loan of his other Brazilian player, Emerson Palmieri from Lyon, France.
Tuchel said he was not disappointed by the lack of success in the transfer window, and remained confident Chelsea could handle its current human resources.
“No, there is no frustration, because I was also calm and there was no frustration because I know the kind of quality we need to add to a very strong and good group.”
And he added, “It’s also my job to find solutions when we have injuries, we tried and we had ideas, but in the end we stick to what we have and we are happy with that.”