Reece James suffers recurrent injury on his return for Chelsea

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Chelsea defender Reece James suffered another injury problem in his comeback game against Bournemouth on Tuesday.

The right-back missed the World Cup finals because of a knee blow sustained on Champions League duty against Milan in October.

He was back in the Chelsea lineup on Tuesday after the injury and looked in decent touch.

However, he lasted only 51 minutes before injury struck again, with Chelsea 2-0 ahead at the time.

James appeared to feel a twinge after beating Bournemouth's Jaidon Anthony to the ball, and he promptly signalled to the bench, demanding a replacement for him.

The England defender went down to the ground in agony covering his face and looked absolutely distraught. He was treated by Chelsea medical staff before being able to stand up and walk off the pitch, passing head coach Graham Potter as he departed to have the pain checked out.

Before the game, Chelsea coach Graham Potter had described James as being "in a good place" again after the "brutal" experience of having to sit out the World Cup.

But the Blues manager was concerned about his player and couldn't confirm how long James will be missing after the latest injury.

"It's the same area, so we are concerned. I'm not sure on the state of the injury. Too early to say. You can see his quality. It's a blow for us. Fingers crossed. We'll see how bad it is," Potter said after the win.

The Chelsea manager also confirmed that the plan was to play James 60 minutes, and the player was unfortunate to get injured around the 51st minute, which is even more agonising for him and devastating for the player. James has been one of their best performers and his injury in October put a real dent to the Blues' progress.

Chelsea ended their five-match winless run with a 2-0 win over Bournemouth. Kai Havertz and Mason Mount scored the goals for them.