Reece James will now have a chance at playing more regular football for Chelsea, without having to deal with recurring hamstring issues when he recovers from his latest injury.

This is according to Lasse Lempainen, the doctor, who performed the surgery on James’ injured hamstring in Finland.

The doctor also claims that the 24-year-old Chelsea captain should be available to play again by March or April, meaning that he could come in handy for the Blues in the latter stages of the 2023-24 season.

“I am very convinced that Reece will be in top shape before the European Championships,” said Lempainen, as quoted by The Telegraph.

“Chelsea will decide on how long he takes, but more likely we are talking about that kind of period [three to four months].

“Yes, absolutely, the surgery gives Reece a better chance of staying fit and not having a recurring problem. We are only talking about the right side, of course, because he also had some problems in his left side before.

“Now, also during the rehab, particularly in the last phase when we do the sport-specific rehab, we will do our best that these risks should be minimised. The hamstring on the right will be stronger, yes.

“This is the first time I’ve worked with Reece. When I do operations for high-level athletes, one of the basic requests is that I want to be involved during the whole rehab process. It doesn’t matter if you do a good operation if the rehab is not done correctly and now I will be part of the whole rehab process and monitor that.

“We will try to do our best during the rehab process to assess the risk factors in Reece’s left hamstring and try to help his strength, mobility and sprinting technique, so Reece can enjoy high-level football again.”

James has already suffered two different hamstring issues this season, missing about two months of football in the process. The England international will surely be missed while he’s away, but at least, fans can be happy about the fact that he will return feeling a lot better this time.