James to miss Lille game along with Hudson-Odoi

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Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi have been ruled out of Chelsea’s Champions League game at Lille on Wednesday night.

But the Blues, who take a 2-0 lead into the second leg, have been handed a boost ahead of the game with both Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta fit enough to return.

Azpilicueta was substituted at half-time of the 3-1 win over Norwich due to illness and subsequently missed the victory over Newcastle on Sunday, while Alonso returned to the bench on Sunday following a bout with Covid-19.


James suffered a muscle injury just three games after returning to action from a two-month spell out with a hamstring problem, while Hudson-Odoi has been struggling with an Achilles problem.

Neither James not Hudson-Odoi have travelled with the squad to France.

Chelsea face ongoing uncertainty over travel arrangements – and much more – due to the sporting licence the club have been allowed to continue operating under following sanctions placed on owner Roman Abramovich.

“We have to deal with it. We have some new things to talk about like how to arrive at games and things that are normally taken care of by the organisation team and the team management,” Tuchel added.

“There are restrictions and we have to deal with it. There are adjustments in our amount of stuff – who is travelling, how many rooms we have in hotels, how we arrive at matches.

“We try to be as professional as possible in the frame that we can do it. To my understanding we have a framework to go to Lille and play the game where there will absolutely be no excuses regarding this kind of organisation.

“It is already a bit more difficult to arrange things in a professional way and the best way possible for the FA Cup but we will deal with it.”