Lampard confirms good news on Hakim Ziyech, bad news on Reece James ahead of Manchester City match

Hakim Ziyech has had quite a stop-and-start debut season for Chelsea. After going off injured in our sole preseason fixture, he would have to wait multiple weeks before finally getting a run in the team, only for the injury bug to hit again.

The good news from Lampard’s press conference today is that Ziyech has returned to full training ahead of Sunday’s match against Manchester City. Ziyech has been out over a month now with a hamstring injury suffered in our win against Leeds.

“He’s fit to train. He’s trained for the last two or three days. I will make the decision as to whether he is ready to start. Reece James is out. Reece has got a small hamstring problem.”

-Frank Lampard, Source: Football.London

With good news, comes confirmation that Reece James remains out with his hamstring injury, which caused him to miss our last game as well and adds to the concerns about his knee injury that he had been dealing with prior to that. James had featured in the Boxing Day terribleness against Arsenal, but this new injury just welcomes further questioning of that decision, along with further questions about Chelsea’s ability to successfully implement correct load management on various players.

On a more positive note, club captain César Azpilicueta is all but be guaranteed another start in place of James, which will be his 400th appearance for the club since joining in 2012. Would be a great time for three points and a good start to 2021.