Enzo Maresca reveals Reece James next Chelsea injury fear as brutal captain statement made

Enzo Maresca has admitted there are no guarantees that Reece James will stay fit despite being limited to just one match a week. It comes as the Chelsea captain prepares to start back-to-back Premier League games for the first time in almost 12 months.

Against Liverpool last time out he was a surprise name on the teamsheet, owing slightly to the defensive tweaks made by Maresca following Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana's suspensions. James lasted just under an hour at Anfield, though, the longest he has played since November 25, 2023.

In fact, in the past year, James has only managed to complete more than one half of football on a single occasion. That rises to three times if extending the period to 13 months. For Maresca, the aim is to get James back regularly before slowly increasing the workload.

"For sure now [James will only play once a week]," the head coach said ahead of Sunday's meeting with Newcastle. "Hopefully building the physical condition so, in future, hopefully he can play more games a week. But now it's important that he doesn't get injured again and he can get games and minutes."

James had surgery in December after a hamstring injury picked up away to Everton meant his return to the side following an immediate setback at the start of last season was once more delayed. That didn't stop him from falling foul to yet more issues this summer, where he sustained an issue that eventually sidelined him for over two months.

Now back in the side, Maresca is managing expectations but doesn't claim to have found the magic touch. "We hope so. Then in football you never know. You can get injured walking, you never know. But we are all agreed, that probably for him, the solution now is to play one game a week."

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How has this been for James, a deep thinker and a character with publicly accepted mental struggles in the past? "To be honest, I've spoken with Reece many, many times," Maresca explained. "He's one that I speak with more since we started, before the injury and now again. Sometimes it's not only Reece. We talk about it because he's our player, he's always here.

"But every club they have some players that always get injury, injury, injury. We need to find the right solution for him and to try to help him. Probably in this moment, the solution could be to use him once a week. We'd like to use him every day because he's a fantastic player but we need to adapt."

Part of the frustration with James has been missing out at a time whereby he was meant to be a poster boy for a new era. Under Mauricio Pochettino he was made club captain, something that meant a lot to him as an academy graduate with over a decade of hard work to get into the setup.

Unlike John Terry, a natural point of comparison with English and youth team development at Chelsea, James is not a tub-thumping warrior off the field. He is not the image of a footballing leader from years past. What he is, though, is someone who stands out in other ways.

For Maresca, there is room for James to have a bigger impact. "Yes, I spoke with him and I expected from him more in terms of leadership, inside the changing room and for different kind of things," he said candidly. "So he's on the way, he's doing well, he’s progressing but from Reece I expected more also in terms of leadership."

Just what does that entail? "Most of the time when they are captain, they think that because they are captain they have more: 'because I am the captain, I expect that you give me more.' For me, because you are the captain you have to give more. You have to give more than the rest.

"And sometimes: 'okay, I am the captain I can give less', no. He's one of the captains and I expected from him, and his teammates expected from him, to give always more in terms of leadership in general."

James has so far had to see the armband passed around the group in his absence. Enzo Fernandez is one of those to have worn it, acting as vice-captain despite upsetting a number of Chelsea teammates over the summer with his role in a derogatory and racist chant sung by members of the Argentina squad aimed at French people.

Levi Colwill is another. Moises Caicedo is also emerging as one of the captains, as Maresca likes to describe them. It sets the bar for James on and off the pitch, but it's a challenge the 24-year-old is taking in his stride.

"Good, that's why I said he's on the way," Maresca said of the reception to his critical conversations. "He understands that we expected more from him. He's one of our guys from the academy but this is one of the reasons why he has to show more in terms of personality."

Does the lack of voice from James matter to Maresca, though? "He's a reserved guy, as you said, but not only him. But when you don't have a proper leader, you need to build that. I think we don't have a proper leader. We don't have guys, you can see them, probably Tosin [Adarabioyo] is one of the guys that is [louder].

"So the rest we need to build them. So Reece is there, he's on the way but he’s not there. So he needs to make an effort in that one. The one that is doing fantastic in this kind of thing is Levi.

"Levi probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking. We need to build that. We need as much as we have, then it’s perfect. Marc Cucurella is one of the guys, so we need more and more."

Chelsea do now have their primary leader back. In one form or the other the hope is there that James will be able to maintain his role on and off the pitch. Maresca will certainly not be letting him go through the motions in the process.

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