Chelsea star Reece James likes Paul Merson's comments criticizing England manager Gareth Southgate on Twitter 

Chelsea defender Reece James has liked a tweet containing Paul Merson's comments criticizing England manager Gareth Southgate. The pundit pointed out that the English boss was willing to risk including other injured players like Kalvin Phillips and Kyle Walker in his World Cup squad, but not the Blues star.

James suffered a knee injury in Chelsea's UEFA Champions League group stage fixture against AC Milan last month. The right-back was ruled out of the England squad traveling to Qatar for the 2022 FIFA World Cup after it was decided that he had not recovered sufficiently.

Phillips and Walker have been struggling with their own injury issues as well. However, the two Manchester City stars have made the cut while James remains sidelined for the World Cup.

This prompted Merson's criticism of Southgate, with the former Premier League footballer questioning Southgate's decision to roll the dice on the Manchester City duo while the Chelsea defender did not receive similar treatment.

The pundit wrote in his column for the Daily Star:

"I just find it weird that he's [Gareth Southgate's] willing to gamble on Phillips and Kyle Walker but not Reece James? If it was Harry Kane he would be going - what's the difference? We aren't going to win the World Cup without having James in the team. He is a shoo-in to start and if we took him, he plays in England's team every day of the week."

"He is one of our best players. If it was Kane, they would say, 'Right we'll take him and use him after the group stages.' We are as bad as anybody at the back so we need to take one of our best players. I just don't understand it. He is as important as Kane."

Paul Merson hits out at England boss for excluding Chelsea's Reece James from World Cup squad

The pundit further slammed the England boss for excluding the Chelsea star from his World Cup squad. Merson insists that James could have recovered in the latter stages of the tournament, especially after seeing the defender's emotional post on Twitter.

James took to Twitter to express his disappointment at his recent injury woes. However, in the message, the Chelsea defender did state that he always felt a feature in this year's World Cup would be possible. He said:

"Devastated. The minute I injured my knee, I knew the turnaround to make the World Cup would be tight, but I always felt it was possible."

Following these statements, Merson wrote in the aforementioned Daily Star column:

"Reading his statement, he feels like he is going to be fit in a few weeks' time. Now I would have only used him in the knockout stages anyway. I'd have wrapped him up in cotton wool because you can use Trent Alexander-Arnold in the group stages where you have 70 percent of the ball and he's going to look a world-beater."

"Then when we come up against France and he falls asleep and Kylian Mbappe scores we'll all be scratching our heads. I am shocked."

James has made 11 appearances across competitions for the Blues this season, scoring two goals and providing as many assists.