Xabi Alonso confirmed Chelsea captain Reece James sustained a knee injury in training that kept him out of Saturday’s 5-1 win over Bournemouth in the Premier League.

In Alonso’s pre-match press conference on Friday afternoon, he included James among the players who had trained well after recovering from injuries, alongside Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Joao Pedro, and Marco Palestra.

Palmer, Caicedo, and Joao Pedro started, while Palestra came on as a second-half substitute in his official Chelsea debut. James, meanwhile, was surprisingly missing from the team sheet.

In a pre-game interview, Alonso said James had sustained a “little” injury during Friday’s training.

It was not until after the game that Alonso clarified that James is dealing with knee issues.

“He felt something, but after we did tests later in the afternoon,” Alonso explained in his post-match press conference when asked about the Chelsea captain’s omission.

“He had some little issues with his knee, so we need to check how long it will be. We will assess it week by week.”

Fortunately for Chelsea, the central midfield partnership between Caicedo and Jordan Henderson worked really well against Bournemouth. The latter even scored twice, including an incredible free-kick late in the game.

Chelsea also had Romeo Lavia on the bench, while Valentin Barco did not even make the cut, with Alonso opting to include Geovany Quenda among his substitutes.

That said, James offers a lot of physicality to the team, and Chelsea may need it, as well as his leadership on the pitch, for the upcoming fixtures against Everton and Tottenham Hotspur.

A trip to Merseyside is always a challenge, while the latter is a London derby that tends to be a physical battle.

On a more positive note, James is not dealing with the recurring hamstring issues that have troubled him in the last few years. Alonso also insinuated that it is a minor knee injury.

This means James is one of the two players on Chelsea’s short injury list, alongside Jamie Gittens, who sustained an ankle injury while on international duty with England Under-21s.

However, there remains a question mark over Emmanuel Emegha’s fitness. The Chelsea summer signing has trained with the group since the international break, but once again did not make the matchday squad.

So far, he has only made the bench once, in the Carabao Cup second-round win over Luton Town in late August.

Following Palestra’s involvement in the Bournemouth win, Emegha is now the only summer signing yet to make an official Chelsea debut.