Reece James makes Chelsea comeback with 45 minutes against Morecambe | OneFootball

Reece James returned to the Chelsea team for the first time since November against Morecambe but played only 45 minutes with the defender taken off at half-time.

The 25-year-old suffered another hamstring injury after playing just four games this season but has returned to the bench for Chelsea’s last two games and started against Morecambe.

He has struggled a lot over the past 18 months with injuries, with a hamstring issue also keeping him out for the majority of last season too.

His last minutes were against Arsenal in the Premier League on 10 November. In an incredible stat, since James was made Chelsea captain in August of 2023, this was only his tenth start.

He played in just 11 games last season and 24 the year before that. It was therefore great news for Chelsea fans to see him on the team sheet ahead of the game today.

James started the game conservatively, understandably seemingly wanting to build into proceedings and preserve himself. He was careful on the ball and seemed reluctant to bomb forward.

But his trademark crossing ability was still on show, and he created two dangerous chances in the first half, the most of any player on the pitch.

The defender also recorded an assist for Tosin’s opening goal after Christopher Nkunku had missed an early penalty.

James had a couple of haphazard passes in the first half, one almost put Filip Jorgensen in trouble, and required some clever footwork from the Dane to save James’ blushes.

But after 45 minutes of football, boss Enzo Maresca opted to replace him at half-time with Malo Gusto, perhaps wanting to conserve and be careful with him given his persistent injury troubles.

Speaking earlier this season, Maresca stressed the importance of James not doing too much too soon: “Probably the solution with Reece is the same solution with Romeo (Lavia) and Wes (Fofana) in terms of using them just once a week, one game, because at the moment Reece’s body probably cannot play twice a week.”

He also urged people not to focus too much on James’ ongoing issues, urging patience with him: “I think the best thing we can do, as the staff, and you, don’t talk too much about Reece. The more we speak about Reece, the more pressure we put on him. The more you ask, the more I answer, the more we put pressure on him.

“For sure, if we have him, we are more happy because we can use him and he can help us in different ways. We don’t have doubt that when he played from the start or from the bench, he always helped us. Now, he’s injured.

“It is something he has to fight in terms of it’s normal, when you get injured, you become afraid, it’s normal on that. At the same time, it is his profession. You can get injured.”

Chelsea fans will now be hoping this can kickstart his season once again and he can finally get a good run of games under his belt.