Chelsea duo Reece James and Trevoh Chabolah have withdrawn from England’s under-21 squad due to injury concerns.

An injury means James was not part of the group that flew to Slovenia on Thursday for a friendly fixture on Friday while Chalobah, who is currently on-loan at Championship side Huddersfield Town, has also withdrawn as a precaution.

The Blues full-back was looking forward to making his under-21 debut but will have to wait after picking up a knock.

Chalobah withdrew as a precaution as the Terriers plot a move up the Championship table following a poor start.

Two other Chelsea players- Callum Hudson-Odoi and Marc Guehi- remain in the squad which as well as the game in Slovenia, will contest a European Under-21 Championship qualifier against Austria in Milton Keynes on Tuesday.

There are reports Real Madrid are ready to use Chelsea’s interest in Gareth Bale in a bid to seal the transfer of Blues midfielder N’Golo Kante.

According to El Desmarque, Bale already has an offer on the table to move to Stamford Bridge, which makes sense as they’ll surely need to finally sign an attacking player to replace Eden Hazard when their transfer ban is finally lifted.

Chelsea, however, may not be so keen on landing Bale if it means losing as important a player as Kante, who has been a consistently world class performer for them since he joined from Leicester City in 2016, report CaughtOffside.

Kante could no doubt do a fine job for Real Madrid too, however, and would no doubt be an upgrade on the struggling Casemiro in Zinedine Zidane’s midfield.

El Desmarque claim Real Madrid will try offering £62million plus Bale to Chelsea for Kante, which looks an admittedly tempting offer.

Reports in Italy and England claim Former Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri is set to raid the Blues for Emerson Palmieri.

Emerson has emerged as one of the top attacking full-backs in 2019, with Sarri deserving huge credit for his rise at Stamford Bridge.

Marcos Alonso was finally dropped after a dismal run of form, handing Emerson his chance to shine a year after he had been signed by Conte from Roma for £17million.

According to CalcioMercato, the left-back is a January target for Juventus, who have returned to the top of Serie A after beating Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan.

Sarri currently has to rely on just Alex Sandro on left side of his defence.

But the Brazilian’s fitness is shaky and midfielder Blaise Matuidi was drafted in as emergency cover in last month’s win over SPAL.

And Sarri wants Emerson to come in and fight to become Juve’s first-choice there, report The Sun.

And Emerson’s ingenuity down the left helped Chelsea secure a third-place finish in the Premier League, as well as the Europa League trophy.

But Sarri is now hoping to be reunited with the Italy international this winter.

Emerson, who has been out injured for a month, is being lined up for a new five-year deal at Chelsea.

But he could be tempted by a move to Turin, where trophies are almost guaranteed.

Reports in Italy claim Antonio Conte’s Inter Milan are preparing a January swoop for Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic.

The 31-year-old Serbia international is said to have a tense rapport with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and made only five competitive appearances this season.

His contract is due to expire in June 2020, although there is an option to extend for another year.

According to FCInterNews.it, Matic is intrigued by the idea of a new experience in Serie A and had already been targeted by current Inter director Beppe Marotta when he was at Juventus two years ago.

At the time, Matic chose to go from Chelsea to Manchester United for €45m.

This would be very different, because he’d get to reunite with former Chelsea boss Conte.

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