James coughed up possession for Fulham's opening goal scored by Alex Iwobi before being changed at the break. Chelsea stormed back late on to win on Sunday 2-1.
Afterwards, Maresca said of James: "Fantastic, very happy because he played 90 minutes two days ago and played again 45 so for us as a team it's an important moment because we can start to think about him every three days and this is fantastic for us because he's our captain, he's a main player, fantastic player so it's good news.
"Then it can happen, we conceded the first goal when he lost the ball, it can happen and the reason why we changed him was not just because he played 90 minutes two days ago, 45 and that was the plan."
Meanwhile, Christopher Nkunku didn't make the bench for the win and Maresca added: "It was just a technical decision."