Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino plays down Reece James injury concerns

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino has played down concerns over a potential injury to Chelsea defender Reece James.

Having been named as club captain earlier in the week, the England international was selected in the Blues XI for Sunday's Premier League fixture against Liverpool.

A pulsating encounter between two sides who looked better going forward than in defence ended in a 1-1 draw, Axel Disasi cancelling out Luis Diaz's opener for the visitors.

However, on what can be deemed to be an encouraging day for Chelsea, there were concerns over the fitness of James who was substituted in the 76th minute.

The initial assumption was that James, who featured at right wing-back, had suffered an injury, a natural worry due to his issues from last season.

Nevertheless, the 23-year-old was able to jog off the pitch when being replaced by Malo Gusto, and Pochettino has now moved to reassure supporters of the reasoning behind the alteration.

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Speaking to reporters at a press conference, as quoted by football.london, the Argentine said: "He was tired. The first thing we did when we arrived was to assess the players from the past and he was injured three or four months and pre-season was tough for him.

"Of course, we didn't want to take any risk. We wanted to keep our way a little bit."

Although James missed the first two games of pre-season, he was able to participate in the friendlies against Newcastle United, Fulham and Borussia Dortmund.

In total, James played 181 minutes during that triple-header, yet he did not accumulate more than 72 minutes in any of those contests.

Furthermore, Pochettino did not use him as a wing-back during their games in the United States, with James required to make more attacking and defensive runs in the position that he occupied versus Liverpool.

Chelsea are next in action when they square off against West Ham United at the London Stadium on August 20.