Chelsea defender Reece James has been charged by the Football Association for an exchange with a match official on Sunday.
James is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury and has not featured for the West Londoners since the opening weekend of the season.
However, it has been revealed that the England international faces the possibility of a fine or suspension for comments made towards an official after the Premier League fixture with Aston Villa.
In a statement, the FA said: "Reece James has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E3 following Chelsea's Premier League game against Aston Villa on Sunday, 24 September.
"It's alleged that the defender used improper and/or insulting and/or abusive words and/or behaviour towards a match official in the tunnel after the game.
"Reece James has until Friday, 29 September, to provide a response to this charge."
While there is no further information, Chelsea had just lost 1-0 to Villa at Stamford Bridge in a fixture where Malo Gusto was handed a red card in the second half.
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Gusto, who was deputising for James, was deemed to have gone too aggressively into a tackle with Lucas Digne, despite winning the ball with the challenge.
The referee initially handed out a yellow card before he was advised by VAR to go to the monitor, which resulted in the caution being upgraded to a red.
Fifteen minutes after Chelsea were reduced to 10 men, Villa scored the only goal of the game through Ollie Watkins, with the home side having over-committed and being caught on the counter-attack.
Gusto will now not return until after the international break in October, with the hope being that James may recover from his latest fitness issue to at least feature against Burnley on October 7.
Nevertheless, the club captain now faces the prospect of a ban, depending on his response to the charge and whether the FA will consider any appeal.
Darren Plant
