Enzo Maresca has allayed fears of an injury to Reece James as he confirmed it was always the plan to bring the Chelsea captain off at half-time against Burnley.
The England defender was replaced at the interval in Chelsea’s 2-0 win at Turf Moor on Saturday, with some Blues fans fearing the worst.
But Maresca explained that he and his coaching staff had agreed before the game to give James a rest after 45 minutes.
The Blues wish to manage the defender’s minutes after his heavy involvement over the recent international break in England’s wins against Serbia and Albania and with huge matches against Barcelona on Tuesday and Arsenal next Sunday.
“The idea was especially to manage Reece,” Maresca said. “This is the reason why he played 45 minutes [only]. It was planned.
“We planned on 45 minutes. That's why I said we had many reasons to be happy today, because one of the reasons was also to try to manage players. It's not easy, because me personally, I would like Reece to continue, but we need to protect Reece.
“Then the rest, Pedro [Neto] and Enzo [Fernandez], they had a good international break in terms of recovery energy and recovery also from the injury.”
Neither Fernandez nor Neto travelled to international duty with Argentina or Portugal respectively this month as they remained at Cobham to manage respective knee and groin injuries, but both stayed on for the full 90 minutes of Saturday’s win at Burnley.
Maresca added: “The rest I think they were all good.”
