A major piece of news from Enzo Maresca’s press conference today (albeit one slightly given away by training photos from earlier in the week) was the return of Reece James to action. That means a fully fit squad, after a very difficult year in the medical department.
James apparently “available” to play, and the coach was then asked how he planned to stop the perennially crocked full back from getting hurt again. The suggestion is pretty simple – put the captain on the same ultra cautious plan that two of his teammates are on following serious injuries.
“It’s complicated when you get injury, injury, injury again. It’s not easy, so you are always looking for a solution,” Maresca mused.
“Probably the solution with Reece is the same solution we are using with Romeo [Lavia] and Wes [Fofana] in terms of using them just once a week, in one game, because probably in this moment, for different reasons, Reece’s body cannot play twice a week. One of the solutions is probably to try and manage him in the same way we are doing with Wes and Romeo.”
An obvious solution for James and injured colleagues
This is the obvious solution of course, and this is what should have been done for a long time. But it’s not quite that simple. Fofana and James’ most serious recent injuries came during preseason, not in the thick of the action, so it’s hard to blame those on overuse.
Injuries have such an element of randomness to them that it’s impossible to ever fully prevent them – but without doubt this is the most basic and sensible method to try and get things back on track. As far as we’re concerned, James should never play two games in a week in his career ever again, for his own sake.
