{"id":11999,"date":"2026-05-23T15:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11999"},"modified":"2026-05-23T15:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T15:00:15","slug":"calum-mcfarlane-confirms-chelsea-injury-boost-vs-sunderland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=11999","title":{"rendered":"Calum McFarlane confirms Chelsea injury boost vs Sunderland"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"content\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/NewsArticle\">\n<!-- google_ad_section_start --><\/p>\n<h6>News<span> \u00bb <\/span>Premier League news<span> \u00bb <\/span>Chelsea news<\/h6>\n<p class=\"articletimestamp\">May 22, 2026 20:08 GMT (UK), by <!-- Author Start -->Sri Aswin<!-- Author End -->\n<\/p>\n<h6>View Chelsea summer 2026 transfer targets<\/h6>\n<div style=\"float:right\">\n<figure>\n<p class=\"article_image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eyefootball.com\/imghold\/largestReece_James_2024.jpg\" title=\"Reece James news\" alt=\"Reece James news\" itemprop=\"image\"\/><\/p><figcaption><em itemprop=\"articleSection\">James fit for Sunderland?<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p><span itemprop=\"articleBody\"><br \/>\n<!-- Article Start --><\/p>\n<h2 style=\"font-size:16px\">\n<strong>Chelsea interim manager <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Calum McFarlane<\/span><\/span>  has confirmed that <span itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Person\"><span itemprop=\"name\">Reece James<\/span><\/span>  will be back for the final Premier League game of the season against Sunderland on the road.<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><!-- responsive_ad --><\/p>\n<p>The Blues captain has had plenty of short-term injuries this campaign, and he did not feature during the 2-1 derby win over Tottenham Hotspur at Stamford Bridge in midweek.<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea did not want to risk him for the game, but McFarlane anticipates the right-back to be involved against the Black Cats at the Wearside Stadium on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>He said: &#8220;We didn&#8217;t want to risk him (vs Spurs). We are hoping to have him back on Sunday.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Chelsea are currently eighth in the league with 52 points. They are in a Conference League qualification spot, but could make the Europa League with a win if other results go their way.<\/p>\n<p>Sunderland, who are just one point behind the Blues, are fighting for Europe themselves. Chelsea are set to face a stern challenge against the Black Cats on the road.<br \/><!-- Article End --><\/p>\n<p><!-- google_ad_section_end --><\/p>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- newadv --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>(function(d, s, id) {\nvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)(0);\nif (d.getElementById(id)) return;\njs = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\njs.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\nfjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News \u00bb Premier League news \u00bb Chelsea news May 22, 2026 20:08 GMT (UK), by&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12000,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}