Athletic: Reece James suffers ‘minor’ hamstring injury, expected to miss first month of season

Well, it was fun while it lasted.

Chelsea made it through a whole month, almost all of preseason in fact, without suffering a noteworthy injury.

But with a week to go until opening day, we have an exclusive report from The Athletic tonight that Reece James has suffered a hamstring injury after feeling “some discomfort” in training earlier this week. The injury is described as “minor”, but of course as we know all too well there is no such thing as a minor hamstring injury. At best, it’s a few weeks of careful management. At worst, it’s an ongoing nagging problem for months on end, and perhaps eventually a season-ending surgery as well.

It’s unclear if this “new injury” is on the same leg that James decided to have surgery on last season after dealing with similar-sounding hamstring injuries for the preceding two years.

The report puts forth September 14 as “a possible return date”, which would be right after the first international break of the new season. James is suspended for the first three domestic games of the season (carrying over his four-match suspension from the penultimate match last season), but he could’ve played in our two-legged Conference League playoff against either SC Braga or Servette FC.