Reece James has undergone knee surgery, and it is widely believed that the Chelsea captain will not be seen again in 2026. A huge blow for Xabi Alonso and Chelsea’s ambitions this season.

James picked up a knee injury in training, and the skipper has now been ruled out for three months, as per some reports. After going under the knife, James could miss 18 games in total – with Everton the first.

But James is no stranger to injury. It’s not the first time he has had an operation, having gone to Finland at the end of 2023 to sort his hamstring out. His hamstring continues to hamper him, as has his ankle.

Liam Twomey: How Chelsea are dealing with Reece James’ injury

If it were any other player, a normal rehab process would ensue. A period of recovery, a period of rehab, getting out on the grass for individual training. A slow return to full training and then staggered minutes.

With Reece James injured AGAIN, is it time to strip him of the captaincy? 😕 If so, who are you giving it to?

No timeline has been given for his return…

But with James, things are different. Since his debut in 2019, James has missed 130 Chelsea games due to injury, with the Blues playing just over 400 matches. He’s missing games at a rate of one every three.

The Athletic’s Liam Twomey reports on the Straight Outta Cobham podcast that James won’t be seen well into 2027, and that Chelsea are giving James a longer timeframe than they would with another player.

“I think the time frame that people at Chelsea are talking about is heavily informed by the fact that it is Reece James. I think they are being more conservative with him,” Twomey said, when discussing James.

“Completely understandable, because of his injury history and because of maybe the residual damage on his body that they have to manage and make sure that there aren’t any setbacks here,” Twomey added.

It will be a while before Alonso can use his preferred midfield

Jordan Henderson has been exceptional, mostly because of his running stats. The England veteran has caught the headlines for his goals against Bournemouth, but he ran more than any player against Everton.

He did so against Bournemouth too, and was second in the running charts at Brentford. That has proven to be infectious, with Chelsea outrunning Everton and Bournemouth. They were outrun 37 times last term.

But Alonso’s preferred midfield is Moises Caicedo and James. With James likely to be missing for at least three months, Alonso will have to wait a while before deploying what he thinks is his best double pivot.