Chelsea ‘need to be realistic’ about how much they can expect from Reece James across the rest of his career, according to football injury expert Ben Dinnery.
James is an extremely popular figure among Chelsea supporters, playing 158 times for the club across all competitions since emerging from their youth ranks in 2019, winning Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup titles along the way.
The 16-time England international is also the current club captain, taking the armband last summer following the departure of Cesar Azpilicueta.
However, James has suffered from wretched injury problems over the last couple of years, with hamstring, knee and muscle problems meaning he’s played just 26 Premier League games in the last two seasons combined — as many as he played in the 2021/22 campaign alone.
In fact, according to Transfermarkt, the 24-year-old has missed 122 games and counting through injury across his Chelsea career to date.
James is currently working his way back from another hamstring issue and is expected to return to first-team activities following the upcoming international break.
However, even if James manages to reintegrate himself into Enzo Maresca’s squad on this occasion, Dinnery believes it’s unlikely the full-back will ever be able to recover to the point of being a week-in week-out starter again.
“In Reece James, we are talking about a very talented footballer who over the past four seasons has only been available 50% of the time, if you look at his minutes in the Premier League,” Dinnery said (via Football.London).
“There’s an understanding now that James’ minutes need to be managed, due to the injury setbacks that he’s had. Chelsea will be hopeful that he can get back to full fitness, but I think it’s a case here where they need to be realistic about how many games he can play for them throughout the rest of his career.
“From my experience, in these cases, it’s hard to see the player ever recovering to be able to take in 30+ games of league football in a season, so Chelsea need to manage his minutes accordingly. I think they have prepared well, as they have good depth in the right back position with Malo Gusto, which takes the strain off him as Chelsea compete in four competitions.”
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