The November FIFA Date has already ended and the Argentine National Team footballers have to return to the reality of their clubs in Europe. Lisandro Martínez and Alejandro Garnacho will meet the new Manchester United coach, Alexis Mac Allister is already thinking about the Liverpool vs. Manchester City, key in the Premier League, and Enzo Fernández found himself with a major problem at Chelsea.
Reece James was injured again.
The outlook for the Blues is better than last season in terms of results, but they are still far from the club they were in past decades. And especially in the relationship between the team’s leaders and the fans, which once again showed its fragility when news of a new injury to its captain, Reece James.
Enzo Maresca, first team coach, revealed in a press conference that Reece James felt discomfort in training this week and will not be available to face Leicester City. James had returned in October after playing just 11 games all of last season, in which he also battled hamstring injuries.
Social media is a ruthless place, and X has become even tougher on athletes with the freedom of expression that Elon Musk enacts for his platform. There, the comments from Chelsea fans towards Reece James were not the best, and they even asked him to retire from football at just 24 years of age.
“It’s sad, a great talent lost”, “At this point he should just retire, he won’t be able to walk or walk if he keeps this up”, “Nah, he’s finished. A shame”, “He will return in April 2025, we have already seen it a million times”, “It seems made of glass”, were some of those comments towards the wearer of the captain’s ribbon of the Blues squad.
Enzo Fernández is usually in charge of wearing the captain’s ribbon when Reece James is not available to play – something that has happened a lot recently – although lately Enzo Maresca has not been using the Argentine as much either. But it may be that, given the injury to Reece James, Maresca needs a reference on the field and the former River player returns to the eleven to occupy that place.
With this, the goal that Lionel Scaloni set for the Argentine National Team players could begin: to have regular minutes in their clubs to continue being summoned in 2025.
This season, Enzo has played 13 games, and started 9 of them. However, his four substitutions came in Chelsea’s last four Premier League games, against Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester United and Arsenal.
