Reece James has played over an hour of Chelsea 's last three pre-season friendlies despite wearing strapping on his right thigh during training before the Manchester City game.
James, 24, had a bright white bandage wrapped around his calf, crucially below the knee, on Friday at Historic Crew Stadium. Benoit Badiashile also had similar strapping around his left leg for the session.
However, neither signified significant enough issues to prevent the defenders from playing against City. James played the best part of 80 minutes before being replaced by Wesley Fofana, while Badiashile featured for half an hour despite not being named on the team sheet, replacing Tosin Adarabioyo.
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The expectation was that he would miss the match, similar to how Levi Colwill did not play against Club America. football.london understands that the England international was omitted from the squad in Atlanta to manage his workload.
After that rest, Colwill played the full 90 minutes against City. He had racked up 80 minutes in the previous game versus Celtic after playing the first half against Wrexham.
Badiashile partnered Colwill for the Wrexham match, coming off together after a half, and then went on to play the full 90 minutes against Celtic. Then, in his teammate's absence, he played just over an hour versus Club America and ended up on for half an hour in the City clash.
James has been as heavily involved this summer, playing the first half against Wrexham before being withdrawn midway through the second after starting the Celtic game. The full-back also got over an hour against Club America before nearly making it to the 80-minute mark versus City.
He has already played over half the minutes he managed across all competitions last season. James is up to around 255 minutes after featuring for only 482 during the injury-affected campaign.
