Mauricio Pochettino says Reece James is out for ‘a few weeks’ but avoided a serious hamstring injury in training.
James, 23, is in a period of rehabilitation but fears he could be out for months have been played down.
Pochettino is keen to assess his defender while he is out to end a bad run of injuries that saw him miss almost 50 percent of Chelsea’s matches last season.
Chelsea are hoping to end his bad run of injuries since the start of last season and will use this period out to assess his fitness issues.
Speaking ahead of a trip to West Ham, Pochettino gave a positive update despite his sadness at losing his star defender.
He said: “It’s a sad moment because he is our captain and he was so excited to be our captain and full of energy.
“I think we are going to assess him day by day and for sure as soon as possible [he will] be again by the team and for sure become stronger than he was because with the structure of the club we are going to help him be stronger than before.
“It is not about a few days, maybe a few weeks but the most important thing is the evolution. The good thing is it is not a big issue.”
Chelsea will also be without Christopher Nkunku, Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana, Benoit Badiashile, Armando Broja and Marcus Bettinelli.
Pochettino also revealed he will make a late decision on whether to involve new signings Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia after they faced “stressful” weeks before their transfer went through.
