Reece James has given Thomas Tuchel a World Cup scare after sustaining a hamstring injury during Chelsea’s defeat against Newcastle on Saturday. He is out of the Champions League last-16 second leg against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday and his latest setback will raise serious doubts over his chances of making the England squad this summer.
It is unclear how long James will spend on the sidelines but conservative estimates are that the 26-year-old defender’s first hamstring injury since November 2024 will keep him out for several weeks. An absence of two months would force him to miss much of the rest of the season and leave Tuchel with a tough decision to make on whether he can trust the right-back to stay fit in the US. The England manager will already be without James for the friendlies this month against Uruguay and Japan. Tuchel’s options at right-back include Tino Livramento, Djed Spence, Jarell Quansah and Trent Alexander-Arnold. James missed the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 through injury.
Chelsea have tried to manage James’s fitness but he has had a heavy workload in the past month. James, who signed a new six-year contract with his boyhood club last week, has been given starts in five of the past six games by Liam Rosenior. “With Reece, he felt something in his hamstring at the end of the game against Newcastle,” Chelsea’s head coach confirmed on Monday. “Really frustrating and disappointing one for us, and we don’t know the full extent of that injury.
“With a hamstring injury, it’s never great. Hopefully we can just get him scanned, we can find out the full extent and then we know more. Because obviously we know what an important player he is, what an important leader he is in the group.”
Chelsea are 5-2 down on aggregate before hosting PSG. They have a selection headache at right-back, with James unavailable and Malo Gusto absent from training on Monday because of illness. Pedro Neto is available to start after Uefa decided not to ban the winger for pushing a ballboy during the first leg.
Chelsea are under pressure after following up their collapse against PSG at the Parc des Princes last week by losing at home against Newcastle – which was preceded by the bizarre sight of Chelsea’s players surrounding Paul Tierney, the referee, as they conducted their pre-match huddle on the halfway line. Rosenior has defended his team gathering in the centre circle but it is expected that they will do future huddles in a different part of the pitch.
“It’s been blown out of proportion to be honest,” he said. “It’s a small, small thing amongst many, many serious things that we need to address. In terms of the huddle, the lads have always wanted to show unity and togetherness. I think they’ll continue to do that. What we don’t want to do is antagonise or bring the noise on ourselves. And we’ll make the decision on where we do that on the pitch tomorrow.
“I think it’s a distraction for the media. The players wanted to show unity. They’re a good group. We never wanted to antagonise anyone or create noise. The time to talk about it has stopped.”
Rosenior has not got to the bottom of how his lineup for the first leg was leaked to the French media on the day of the game. “I haven’t even thought about that. It’s not the first time it’s happened, it won’t be the last time. I’m not talking in terms of me, I’m talking about any team or any club. These things happen. It’s disappointing but I’m sure it won’t happen again.”
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