After a turbulent week, James falls out of Zinedine Zidane's call for Real Madrid's visit to Athletic tomorrow Sunday (2pm, Movistar LaLiga). It is the first absence of the Colombian in a list since the League resumed and it has been temporarily authorized to extend the calls to 23 players. Given the accumulation of losses in defense, the French coach has chosen to sacrifice James to include the youth squad Javi Hernández and maintain all the potential in attack that Zidane has.
Despite the fact that last summer the coffee international had a foot and a half outside of Real Madrid, Zidane repeatedly trusted James in the first league games. Four starts in the first nine days and a goal against Granada. But then, since the first round match (matchday 9) in Mallorca, he has only enjoyed minutes in the championship against Real Sociedad (matchday 30). Zidane trusted him with ownership again and the Colombian was on the field 78 minutes before giving way to Asensio. Between one match, he barely participated in five other Champions League, Cup and Super Cup matches, also weighed down by a couple of injuries that prevented him from participating with Colombia in November in the last team break despite going to the call of his team. In the league, meanwhile, he has alternated substitutions without minutes with non-inclusions in the call.
James's numbers with Madrid this season
| Competition | PJ | Min. | Tit. | Goals |
| League | 8 | 419 | 5 | one |
| Cup | 3 | 215 | 3 | 0 |
| Champions | two | 81 | one | 0 |
| Super Cup | one | 13 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 728 | 9 | one |
Source: Opt.
This week James returned to be the protagonist in the media of his country. “It is a good question, I would also like to know,” he answered in an interview in Gol Caracol when asked why he does not play. “It is difficult when your coach does not give you minutes permanently, it becomes difficult. It is complex to show your abilities in a few minutes, you cannot do everything you know”he added. The ball went to the roof of Zidane, who on Wednesday, at the press conference prior to the game against Getafe, was asked about the midfielder's statements: “We know the player he is and it is normal that he wants to play more. I understand”, The French coach was coming out.
James witnessed the game against Getafe from the improvised bench in the Di Stéfano stands, waiting for a few minutes that, like so many other games of the season, did not arrive. In San Mamés, it won't even be there.