Since Reece James' introduction to the Chelsea side in 2019, the narrative around the Chelsea club captain has always been that, when he's fit, he's one of the best in his position in the world, but the argument that people have is that he is rarely fit for a sustained period of time.
The England international hasn't been seen since the Blues' 2-2 draw against Hull on September 12, and he had to withdraw from Thomas Tuchel's England squad with a suspected hamstring injury. Still, he was expected to return after the international break against Bournemouth.
After three weeks of rest, many expected James to be fit. Still, he was surprisingly omitted from Xabi Alonso's side on Saturday.
It was later revealed that on the eve of Chelsea's 5-1 demolition of Bournemouth, James had picked up an injury in training, with Alonso saying, “Unfortunately, Reece picked up a little injury yesterday, so we’ll see [in the coming days].”
In Xabi Alonso's post-match press conference, when asked about James' return time frame and his fresh injury, Alonso stated that this new niggle James picked up was to do with his knee, saying "he had felt something."
"“After that, he had the tests later in the afternoon [on Friday]. He had some little issues on the knee."
"“We need to check how long it will be. We need to assess him week-by-week.”"
Looking into Reece James' injury numbers since the start of the 19/20 season, the Englishman has picked up over 20 different injuries, keeping him out for in excess of 800 days. When seeing those numbers, you'd think that he would have had multiple surgeries, but James has only had one, coming in the back end of 2023, keeping him out until May 2024.
This was to try to stop the recurring hamstring injuries Reece James would keep picking up. The annoying thing that would be annoying for him and Chelsea fans is that with the injuries he's picked up, he has only missed 10 or more games only six times across all of those times he's been sidelined.
This isn't the first time that James has been close to returning after a short layoff, but hasn't come back into the side in the expected time period, with the case either being the injury being more serious than expected, or in this instance getting a new one after getting rid of the existing niggle.
Looking into the number of appearances per season that James has made, the numbers make it evident that when he is fit, his output is impressive for someone who predominantly plays as a right back. His most productive season came in 2021/22, the year after Chelsea won the Champions League, getting 16 goal contributions in 39 appearances.
When James plays well, typically so does Chelsea. The season when he played the most was the season the Blues had the most success in 2020/21, but in 2022/23, Chelsea finished 12th, and although they got to the quarter-finals of the Champions League, they were knocked out early of both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup, where James only made 24 appearances that season, followed up with 11 the year after.
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