Chelsea include player in Club World Cup squad despite Thomas Tuchel "out" comments

Reece James has been named in the Chelsea squad and has travelled to the FIFA Club World Cup despite Thomas Tuchel saying earlier this week that he would not go to Abu Dhabi, as per The Athletic. On Friday during the press conference, Tuchel opened up on James' fitness, claiming that the defender is yet to train with the team after suffering a hamstring in the 1-1 draw against Brighton. “Reece is not in team training yet, so he’s not available this weekend. And he will not travel with us to Abu Dhabi because he’s not back in team training," the German manager said ahead of the club's 2-1 FA Cup win over Plymouth Argyle (via The Athletic). “I’m too long a manager to have big feelings for injuries, and not to get overexcited by pure dates that are maybe out there when a player can come back. “I know you can have setbacks and it can take a long time sometimes, it depends, and the injury was a big injury and I felt it straight away. “The diagnosis was straight away that it’s a big injury, and from there we need to be patient. It’s a hamstring, it’s always tricky and he’s a very physical player. “And unfortunately he then caught the flu and that was a setback in the last few days of his process in coming back to the team. “But we are patient. We would love to have him back tomorrow of course, but it’s not happening and we have to be patient.” Join us on Telegram!/ Follow us on Twitter!

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