Chelsea fitness update on Reece James, Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill | News | Official site

The Blues return to Premier League action this weekend when they take on Steve Cooper’s Foxes at the King Power Stadium – Maresca’s former club – in the early kick-off on Saturday.

Speaking in his pre-match press conference at Cobham, our manager confirmed that captain James will not be a risk after suffering a slight hamstring complaint and said he will need to assess the fitness of some of the other players ahead of the trip to the east. Midlands.

Maresca said: ‘We definitely only have one injured player and that’s Reece. Unfortunately he felt a little something and we don’t want to take a risk with him this weekend. He is the only one for sure not available this weekend.

“The rest, some of them are better and some of them are in doubt and we have to wait because today is the first session we do with all the players from international duty, so we will see after today’s session .”

He added: ‘It’s his hamstring with Reece, so a muscle problem. We don’t want to take any chances with this weekend so hopefully it won’t be too far.’

Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill were two of the players to withdraw from international duty over the past two weeks, with Wesley Fofana, Malo Gusto and Filip Jorgensen others unable to play for their countries initially had been summoned.

Asked specifically about Colwill and Palmer, Maresca explained that he had not been part of any talks with the England set-up.

“To be honest, after we played Arsenal I went for a week (on holiday) so I don’t know about the talks between the club and the international teams,” said Maresca.

Asked if Palmer and Colwill were okay, our head coach added: ‘Like I said, some of them are better, some we will test today. But overall they are certainly much better.’

Chelsea’s talented squad includes e.g. Argentina’s Enzo Fernandez and Ecuador’s Moises Caicedo, who traveled to South America for World Cup qualifiers and will take part in their first Chelsea training session since returning to England this afternoon.

Explaining how such travel will inevitably have an impact on their fitness levels and bodies, Maresca said: ‘Those who are going to play (against Leicester) will not be 100 per cent because they are human and when you play two games in South America , and you have to play again, even if you are 20 to 25 years old, it doesn’t matter and you are tired because you are human. But hopefully we can find the right balance (in our midfield).’