When Everton signed James Rodriguez from Real Madrid in the summer, they knew they were taking on something of a risk.
As talented a player as the Colombian is, something he has already shown in abundance at Goodison Park, he is also extremely susceptible to injuries.
At the beginning of the season, this was not much of a problem as the midfielder flew out of the gates and seemed as fit as the proverbial fiddle.
However, a heavy challenge from Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby soon changed all that, with Rodriguez picking up other niggling injuries and struggling to get back to his best ever since the incident.
He currently finds himself out with another such injury, with recent reports indicating Everton are taking things very carefully as they don’t want him missing for an extended period of time.
AS Colombia report today that for the last three years, Rodriguez has been ‘absent’ in the last month of the year for Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and now Everton.
They explain that in 2018 it was a knee sprain that left him out while on loan at Bayern Munich while the following year a sprained left knee suffered on international duty left him out injured until January 2020.
Going into further detail, they explain that while at Bayern he suffered a ligament sprain in his left knee in training on November 14th and while the recovery process took only ten days, he was given 31 days of ‘rehabilitation’.
Thus, he ended up returning on January 18th 2019, and missed eight games as a result. It was a very similar story the following year.
This time he suffered a strain in his left knee while on international duty on November 15th. That saw him miss 38 days of action in total and another eight games and he seems to be on the same track with Everton.
At this point ‘everything indicates’ that he will be fit for the December 23rd clash with Manchester United but if he isn’t there are still clashes with Sheffield United on Boxing Day and Manchester City on December 28th for him to be fit for.
It’s a situation that Carlo Ancelotti has said they’ll watch day by day, but, if history is anything to go by, expect the Blues star man to be back fit and firing come the New Year.
