Why Reece James is not playing for Chelsea after Copenhagen midfield experiment | OneFootball

Reece James was not included in Chelsea's squad for the Premier League clash with Leicester City because of illness.

The 25-year-old has endured another injury-riddled campaign, playing just over 600 minutes of Premier League football across ten appearances.

Encouragingly, James came through Thursday's 2-1 win over Copenhagen in the Conference League unscathed, playing the full 90 minutes in an unfamiliar central midfield role.

Yet when Chelsea's team was announced for Sunday's clash with Leicester, James' name was nowhere to be seen in either the starting lineup or on the nine-strong substitutes bench. The good news is that James has not suffered an injury setback, rather he reported to the club's medical department on Saturday that he had a fever and was feeling under the weather.

His absence coincides with a return to the fold for Wesley Fofana, who like James has struggled with a catalogue of injuries throughout his time at Stamford Bridge. The Frenchman was listed as Chelsea's starting right-back, stepping up in place of the injured Malo Gusto.

A change of role looks likely for James in the future, after Maresca spoke positively about utilising his skills in midfield rather than at right-back.

"At this moment, we are using him as a midfielder and he is doing very well," the Italian said after dispatching Copenhagen. "When I signed with Chelsea, probably the day after, I sent him a video about seeing him as a midfielder.

"When you watch a player, you sometimes need to use imagination and imagine a player doing something. I always imagined him behaving as a midfielder. I watched some of his games when he was on loan from Chelsea to Wigan [in 2018/19] where he scored a fantastic goal from 25 or 30 metres as a midfielder."

Maresca also opted to retain Robert Sanchez in goal, rotating the Spaniard back into the side ahead of Filip Jorgensen, who started the recent 4-0 win over the Premier League's bottom club Southampton.