Liam Rosenior insists Reece James is ‘so close’ to being available for selection after the Chelsea captain was absent from our victory over Wolverhampton Wanderers.




James has made 30 appearances for the Blues across all competitions this season, but only featured in the final nine minutes of our win over West Ham United and was absent from our Carabao Cup semi-final second leg defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday.

Rosenior was hopeful the 26-year-old would be ready for our trip to Molineux this afternoon, but James wasn’t in the squad that secured a 3-1 victory in the Black Country, courtesy of a Cole Palmer hat-trick.

In his post-match press conference, Rosenior reiterated that there is no major cause for concern regarding James’ fitness and is hopeful the Blues skipper will be available when Leeds visit Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.

He said: ‘Reece is so close and should be fit for Tuesday. At the moment, with the games we have, everything is being taken day by day. He’s really, really close – there’s no major problem at all – and it would be great to have him available for Tuesday. 

‘It’s a pain management issue and to be honest, Reece was out running [at Cobham] yesterday. But it just wasn’t right.

‘Again, we’re in the midst of a really, really difficult period of games, because of the number of games that we’ve got. Hopefully, he comes back fully fit and fully rested for Tuesday.’