Maresca shares insights on James' injury concerns ahead of season opener

The right-back has been struggling with a series of muscle injuries over the last year and a half.

James is not available for the Blues’ first Premier League game of the season against Manchester City on Sunday.

He stated: “We have just one injury, that is Reece James.

“The rest are fit and they will be available.”

He added: “It depends on the injury because sometimes, if it’s a kick, it’s not because training is no good, it’s an unlucky kick and you got injured. The only thing I can say, and I wasn’t here last year, is that in one month, we have had just one injury problem which is Reece.

“Unfortunately, he got an injury two or three minutes before we were going to change him, otherwise we would have avoided it. That can happen.

“Sometimes injuries can be because of different things, but we are managing the situation well.

“We managed players the other day against Inter, Christo didn’t start because he played so many minutes in pre-season and didn’t play many last year. Wesley didn’t play the game before so he can then start.”