Will persistent injuries mean Reece James will never fulfill his true potential?

After being named Chelsea’s new captain by Mauricio Pochettino following the departure of long-term servant Cesar Azpilicueta, who lifted every piece of silverware possible during his 11-year stint at Stamford Bridge, at the end of last season, Reece James would have been buzzing for the new season ahead.

That showed in the Blues’ opening game of the 2023-24 Premier League campaign at home to Liverpool. The right-back looked in inspired form as he linked up beautifully with Raheem Sterling and caused Jurgen Klopp’s men some real problems down that side of the pitch.

However, just as the Chelsea fans were getting excited about what they were seeing against Liverpool, James picked up a hamstring injury and is set to spend weeks on the sidelines. It’s yet another setback in the 23-year-old’s career and it’s a massive loss for Pochettino as there’s no question that Chelsea are better with him in the side and more favourable in the Premier League betting.

For James, however, the persistent injuries that he suffers have got to be taking their toll on him both physically and mentally and it begs the question of whether he will ever live up to his full potential. For a 23-year-old, his injury history is much longer than it should be and he’s never going to be as good as he possibly can be if he spends more time on the treatment table than on the pitch.

It’s also concerning how these injuries are going to affect the longevity of James’ promising career, especially when you consider that it is his hamstrings that appear to be causing him the majority of the problems. When you break it down, James has missed a massive 96 days since the beginning of the 2021-22 season due to hamstring injuries.

He missed 21 games in that time alone and both those figures are only going to get bigger thanks to this knock, as James isn’t expected to return until after the upcoming international break later this month at the earliest. By that stage, the right-back will have already missed over a month of the season and six games across all competitions — including ties against favourites in the Premier League relegation betting odds Luton Town, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth.

It’s sad to see this happen to a player with such talent, especially when last season was pretty much a write-off for James. He picked up a knee injury in October that devastatingly meant he missed the World Cup in Qatar and he returned for just a couple of weeks in December before aggravating that knee again and missing another month of the campaign. Thigh and hamstring issues meant he pretty much missed all of the last few months of the season as well. 

Let’s hope that James can come back from this latest setback and get a good run of games under his belt this season. We have spoken a lot about Chelsea, but his England career is also massively suffering. He missed a World Cup that he would have likely been a starter at and Gareth Southgate will be just as keen to have back to his best for the Three Lions’ sake as Pochettino is to have him back donning the captain’s armband.