James signed for Madrid for €80 million in the summer of 2014 and was extremely impressive in his debut campaign under Carlo Ancelotti. However, he has failed to hit those heights under Rafa Benitez or Zidane and has slipped down the pecking order at Real.
Against Real Sociedad at Anoeta last weekend, he played just 17 minutes as only the third substitute used by the Frenchman - even in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Luka Modric. And so the match at home to Celta Vigo at the Bernabeu on Saturday could well be his last in the famous white shirt.
Isco is out for the Liga clash along with Ronaldo and Benzema again, but Modric returns from injury and James, 25, is likely to start on the bench once more.
Asked about the midfielder's future on Friday, Zidane said: "When I answer, it seems as if I want James to leave. He is a Real Madrid player and he has a contract. [But] it's true that he has played less and that could be a problem."
Indeed it could. In fact, it probably will, because James complained of a lack of playing time last season virtually every time he returned to his homeland on international duty. And once Zidane has all of the players at his disposal, opportunities for the attacking midfielder are set to be even more limited.
Under Zidane, James has started just 12 matches and appeared as a substitute in 16 others. It is hardly the protagonism he had imagined when he arrived from Monaco two years ago, yet he remains keen to stay and fight for his career at Real.
The emergence of Marco Asensio this summer and the Mallorca-born midfielder's spectacular start to the season means James has fallen even further out of favour with Zidane, however, while Isco is also ahead of him right now and so too is Mateo Kovacic - a surprise starter for Real at Anoeta last Sunday.
But whether James ultimately stays or leaves Madrid in this window will likely depend on the offers received by Real. If the club can recoup all or most of their initial investment, a sale seems likely before the end of the window. And if not, Los Blancos have no reason to sell.
It is a dramatic decline for a player who was so impressive and also popular among the supporters in 2014-15. A real luxury then, he has become a problem for Zidane now and the Real boss knows that it will be very difficult to keep him happy for an entire season if opportunites are so few and far between.
So while his future remains up in the air with less than a week left until the transfer window closes, one thing seems clear: there is no room for this version of James Rodriguez in Zidane's plans for Madrid.
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