Chelsea right-back Reece James could be out of action for two months due to injury

Chelsea's right-back Reece James could be out of action for a month or two after suffering an injury while playing against Manchester City on Saturday. Reece looked in trouble and limped off the field with just half an hour into the match. As per injury expert Ben Dinnery, Reece James could be out of action for at least a month. The development though should not concern Chelsea much as the player wasn’t a guaranteed starter in the playing XI.

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"It was the biggest injury of the weekend in terms of the chatter on my timeline, he's a high-profile player. In terms of the impact on Chelsea, I don't see it having huge potential implications. He certainly wasn't a guaranteed starter in the Premier League," Dinnery told Football Insider.

"He offers Thomas Tuchel another option in that backline, but if Thiago Silva hadn't picked up that knock prior to the game against Manchester City then Reece James wouldn't have been in that starting XI anyway.

"Tuchel will speak ahead of Chelsea's Champions League fixture with Juventus and he may or may not offer a bit of insight into what's going on with James.

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"Just by looking at that coming together with Jack Grealish, that external rotation, it looks as if there’s a problem there. That suggests it could be, looking at the database, the average return to play is in and around 50-60 days.

"The shortest we have on record is around 25-28 days but the longest we’ve got exceeds 100 days."

James had an impressive start to the 2021-22 Premier League and scored one goal while providing two assists in Chelsea’s opening three games. The right-back received a red card against Liverpool and was ruled out of the match against Aston Villa. He returned to the playing XI against Manchester City but picked up the injury and had to leave the field.