When Reece James is expected to re-join Chelsea training

Thomas Tuchel has provided an update on the fitness of Reece James ahead of Chelsea’s clash with Crystal Palace.

Both Reece James and Ben Chilwell have been out of action for some time now.

The English duo were integral to Chelsea’s early success under Tuchel, so it was not surprising to see the Londoners’ form dip off when both were forced onto the sidelines.

Chilwell is expected to be out for the remainder of the campaign. However, James could be back fairly soon.

When speaking to the press on Friday, Tuchel stated that the plan is for James to re-join first-team training next week: “It's too long for all of us, we miss him a lot. I had the feeling from the start we had to deal with a big injury and unfortunately, my feeling was right.

“We had a setback when he caught the flu when he was close to re-joining team training.”

“Like always, you have the risk with a physical player like Reece is with a muscle injury there is a delay. We are waiting for him. The plan is he re-joins the group next week.”

Thomas Tuchel on Romelu Lukaku

Elsewhere in his pre-Crystal Palace press conference on Friday, Tuchel was asked if he has been left disappointed with Romelu Lukaku’s goal return.

The Belgian has scored just 5 times in 16 league games this season – a far cry from his superb return at Inter Milan.

Tuchel, though, has called for patience when it comes to Lukaku: “We need a bit of more patience than we perhaps all wanted to have.

“We demand a lot of our strikers in terms of intensity, so there are reasons why things are maybe like this. There are teams who rely on one goalscorer, that is no secret, but there are teams who rely on more shoulders. So both ways work and we want to bring Romelu to better situations. It's an ongoing process.

“We still have trust because he has proved at previous clubs he is the guy who gets the last touch on attacks. Disappointed is not the right word but, of course, we thought for him, and for him as well, he wanted to produce the numbers right from the start. But we are all humans and we keep on going.”

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