Xabi Alonso confirms Chelsea transfer plan with Reece James facing long injury layoff

Xabi Alonso has confirmed Chelsea will not panic buy in January despite the fact Reece James is facing three months out after undergoing knee surgery.

It was confirmed on Friday that James had gone under the knife to correct an injury picked up in training before Chelsea’s five-goal rout of Bournemouth last weekend.

Alonso said at the time that the injury was only minor, but James is now not expected to return until late January, a period which could see him miss as many as 22 matches .

Speaking on James’ injury, Alonso said the club as a whole was disappointed to lose its captain, but confirmed his absence will not push the club back into the transfer market in January.

“We are all disappointed, especially for him,” he said. “He wanted to have a good start after the international break but in the last training he had an injury.

“We wanted to wait to know the result of the tests, but the surgery has been successful.

“He keeps reporting here. He is close to the team and a great influence even when he is not available. We don’t set timelines, but he will be out for several weeks. It is not going to be short.

“After Christmas, time will tell. Things must be done properly. Get that knee in the best possible condition. It is a disappointment for everyone, for him, but we have the squad to deal with it.”

In his absence, though, Alonso has confirmed Levi Colwill and Moises Caicedo will share the captain’s armband in James’ absence.

He continued: “We have Moi, we have Levi, we have players that take that responsibility. They take the role in a perfect way.

“They have the support from the rest. You can be a captain without an armband. Once you have it, you have to take that responsibility.”

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James’ career to date has been dominated by injuries, but Alonso was insistent he remained a keystone member of the squad despite his patchy availability: “He is still a very important player and he is the captain, he has great influence and hopefully after recovering from this injury he will be available for many games. He works hard, he has a good mentality and we need him.”