Chelsea fans planning their teams for tomorrow universally have Reece James and Ben Chilwell as their ideal starting pair at full back – discarding the fact that both are on a long road back from injury hell.
Of course, it’s a possibility we see both in the starting XI, but if both were to start, it would be very surprising.
James returned to start last weekend, and played again in Dortmund. A third start in 7 days would be really surprising – slamming a player from 0 to 100 like that is a recipe for disaster.
It’s a similar situation for Chilwell, who is even one step behind James in terms of his recovery. After half an hour as a sub against West Ham he played from the start for an hour in Germany.
Both have had two seasons in a row disrupted by injury, and there was a sense with both that their return earlier this season was rushed, contributing to the problem.
We would imagine both will play some part and in the end it will all come down to the medical data that comes from today’s training session, but fans hoping to see both start again may find themselves disappointed.
