Reece James is back in full Chelsea training ahead of Saturday’s Premier League clash with Arsenal, although it’s unclear whether he will be ready to start.
Having picked up a hamstring injury on the first day of the season, James was initially declared fit to face Burnley before the international break. Yet he suffered a setback and spent 10 days training alone.
He was considered a major doubt to face the Gunners this weekend, before rejoining the group on Wednesday having made positive progress in his recovery.
James posted a picture of him smiling in training on Instagram with the caption “against all odds”.
But this fresh injury was James’ 17th different injury since making his first-team debut four years ago.
In that time, the 24-year-old has missed 90 games, nearly 40 per cent of a possible 228.
Having been named Chelsea captain over the summer, he has worn the armband just once in a competitive match, against Liverpool, for 76 minutes. He has started just 22 league games since January 2022.
Despite a £1bn transfer expenditure in the past 16 months in which Chelsea have assembled one of the most expensive squads ever, James is still among their best players.
With renewed form and a fair wind behind him, he may even be the best.
This is a sumptuously rare talent, one of the most complete English full-backs, a fast, fearless yet friable one-man right flank.
So how do you solve a problem like Reece James? One of Mauricio Pochettino’s greatest and least celebrated achievements has been weaning Chelsea off their dependency on James and Ben Chilwell, with the creative burden now more equally and effectively shared.
According to WhoScored, Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling all rank in the top 50 Premier League players for most key passes per 90 minutes so far this season. In 2022-23, only Mason Mount (49th) joined James in the top 50, and that was considered a season of inconsistency from the right-back.
Alongside this, Fernandez has the highest long ball completion rate (75.9 per cent) of any player in the Premier League to have attempted more than 50.
Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto and Chilwell all have Premier League assists this season, but as do Palmer, Sterling and Conor Gallagher. Chelsea’s wide defenders still play a vital role in the creative process, but the burden on them is much lighter.
Chelsea can now create genuine goalscoring chances without using wing-backs for the first time since Thomas Tuchel joined in January 2021. Tuchel and Graham Potter’s spells largely lived and died on the form and fitness of the James-Chilwell combination and N’Golo Kante.
Yet by basing his own system around a four-man defence and prioritising the tactical role rather than the player which fills it, Pochettino has finally broken Chelsea’s reliance on players whose fitness is unreliable.
Whether filled in his absence by Gusto, or even left-back Marc Cucurella, the right-back slot is now ready for James whenever he chooses to inhabit it, but its functionality is not entirely dependent on him. He’s now an upgrade, not a necessity.
His role as captain is more complex within all this, but there was simply no better candidate than a Champions League-winning academy graduate who is also among the club’s premier talents. Largely a man of few words, he is there to lead by example, but it’s hard to be an exemplar from the sidelines.
This feeds into a core issue – how James’ injury record affects him, both physically and psychologically. His obvious love of playing football only makes absence cut deeper.
Protecting him from his desperation to play is half the challenge here, and protecting him from the ever-increasing schedule is the other.
With every injury, he might just lose faith in his own body just a smidge more. Finding the motivation to recover becomes harder each time. There’s always a point of saturation.
Of course a footballer’s primary goal is to play football. But does James need to play every game for Chelsea to demonstrate his worth?
If he’s available to start even half the 50-plus games Chelsea have to play every season (when in Europe), ideally protected for the important ones, is that so untenable? If the pressure stemming from the expectation he should play every possible minute were removed, would everyone not be happier with the eventual outcome?
Catering for a player with James’ current injury record wouldn’t be possible at a club without sufficient financial resource, but the Todd Boehly-Clearlake axis have proven they can afford luxury.
Perhaps James can eventually put his injury problems behind him, however distant a hope that may seem now. All Chelsea can do is prepare for life without him and enjoy life with him. Treat him as a solution when he does play, rather than a problem when he doesn’t.
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