Reece James won’t be rushed back to fitness for Euro 2024 as Mauricio Pochettino delivers injury update

The Chelsea defender has been suffering with a hamstring injury that he picked up in August last year.

Having been forced to undergo surgery, James has been limited to just eight appearances this season in a disappointing campaign.

James only managed 16 appearances last term too, partly due to a knee injury picked up that ruled him out of the World Cup in Qatar in December 2022.

But with this summer’s European Championships on the horizon, it seems that there’s no guarantee of him being fit to compete.

Asked for a date on James’ return, Pochettino said: “I cannot say the date of when it’s possible.

“His target and our target is for him to be fit and feel happy and well. Then we’ll see about the possibility of going to the Euros or not, or to be ready for next season or to play before we finish this season.

“The most important thing now is to build his confidence, his physical condition, to recover all the good feelings.

“The target is not to try and play the last five games or in the Euros or pre-season.

“The target is to build again his confidence and to feel strong, then to start to play when he feels strong and can deal again with the competition.”

Quite remarkably, James has only made one major tournament appearance for England during Euro 2020, with the defender ruled out of the World Cup in Qatar due to a serious knee injury.

But discussing his prospects of being fit, Pochettino says that they’ve in contact with the England camp, saying: “I didn’t speak with (Southgate).

“But we have spoken people involved in (the FA), medical, performance people.

“It’s not ‘now I can go on the pitch, I can play’.

“It’s to be sure we can go to the competition and he can feel strong and can forget all that has happened in the past.”