Mauricio Pochettino has hinted that he would not be able to start some of his Chelsea players in the upcoming game against Brighton.
The Blues are looking to secure their place in Europe for next season in their final two outings of the season, with a place in the Europa League a very realistic possibility still if results elsewhere go their way.
It has previously been claimed that qualifying for that competition is a minimum for Pochettino as far as the owners are concerned.
His efforts to do this have been impacted heavily by a plethora of injuries at Stamford Bridge this season, with his first choice defence being absolutely ravaged.
One of those who has hardly featured as a result of this is Reece James, although he did make his first appearance of 2024 against Nottingham Forest.
It took mere minutes for him to make an impact, putting an inch-perfect cross into Nicolas Jackson to help secure the comeback victory.
Pochettino still can’t start Reece James
Despite his very impressive cameo, Pochettino has hinted that the time is still not right for the club captain to return to the starting side.
He said: “The players that arrived from injury need time and we don’t have time. We need to start games with players that can play the 90 minutes. That is the problem we have. The boys are not really 100 per cent to cope from the beginning at the moment.
“He [James] is training really well. Now we need to control the game-time. We want him to finish the season really well. We want him to play a little bit more than last game.”
Luckily for the boss, he also has the returning Malo Gusto to call upon, who has been brilliant in is own right this season.
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