Is Chelsea's injury crisis coming back? Enzo Maresca reveals worrying updates on Wesley Fofana and Benoit Badiashile - but offers hope over Reece James

Chelsea had a huge injury list last season and while this term they have not had such issues, their absentees are multiplying. Centre-back Fofana has been out with a hamstring problem, fellow defender Badiashile sustained an injury last weekend in training, and captain James is recovering from another hamstring issue. Now, head coach Maresca has provided a worrying update on his centre-backs but said the right-back is back in training.

On Friday, the Italian said: "Both, they are still out and both will still be out for a long period."

When asked if they won't be back in January, he added: "Yeah."

He continued: “Reece finally will start with us for part of the session (on Friday), so slowly, slowly, he will be back. That doesn’t mean he is going to be with us on Sunday or next Sunday. The plan for him is to be with the team for part of the session and from there to try to build the right condition for him and then finally he can be back with us.”

That means Chelsea are without Fofana, Badiashile, James, and Maresca said midfielder Romeo Lavia will "struggle" to be fit for Everton this weekend. While the Blues have strength in depth, they will not want their injury list to pile up after their impressive start to the season.

It remains to be seen how long Fofana, Badiashile, and James will be out for, especially as Chelsea are set for a busy festive fixture period.