MY ACCOUNT
Chelsea head coach Graham Potter says that injured Reece James “will give everything” in his race to make England’s World Cup squad.
The defender has been sidelined for eight weeks after sustaining a knee injury during the Blues’ Champions League victory over Milan on Tuesday.
But the 23-year-old is clinging onto his hopes of playing at the World Cup, which begins on November 21 with England opening their campaign against Iran.
While Potter is unsure on James’ chances of appearing in Qatar, the Chelsea boss insists the full-back will not give up without a fight.
“In terms of his involvement in the World Cup, I don’t know. It will depend on how he recovers,” he said following the Blues’ 2-0 victory over Aston Villa.
“He will give everything. I’m sure he will. But he is in a brace for four weeks and that slows everything down.
“He’s naturally disappointed, naturally upset because he’s injured for us. He misses games for us when he was in a fantastic moment.
“His performance at Milan was incredible in both games, so he’s got himself into a real good moment of form and as you can imagine, he’s really disappointed to be injured.
“He’ll fight, try his best to get back as quickly as he can and when he is, he will be a top, top player.
“It wouldn’t be my place to predict what’s going to happen. He will be in a brace for four weeks, and that has implications in terms of what he needs to do to get fit from there, but our job is just to help him in the short term now and get him back.”
Chelsea’s resurgence under Potter continued with the 2-0 win at Villa Park, the former Brighton boss masterminding five successive victories for the first time in his managerial career.
Meanwhile, the Blues have recorded four successive triumphs across all competitions without conceding, while doing so consecutively in the Premier League for the first time since March.
“I think it’s a collective desire to do the ugly stuff in the game; a collective idea to help each other and to be together,” Potter said.
“If we have to suffer, we will suffer. We have humility, and we know sometimes the opponent can get the better of us, that is normal in football.
“But you can see the players running and can see players getting bodies in the way to block shots. That is an important part of the game because we’ve got the quality in the group.”
