Incorrect. https://www.transfermarkt.com/chris-smalling/verletzungen/spieler/103427Most seasons he's missed 10 or so games through injury. For a 29 year old at 20m that's too much of a risk. That's what i meant by it.
He's nowhere near as bad as someone like Jones of course who is injury prone.
That injury record is about normal for an outfield player aged 29 as far as I know. To put that into perspective, he's missed 58 games due to injury in his career, your new fella Fabian Delph has missed 112. They're both the same age. That means Smalling has missed 6.4 games on average per season for us. Which when you consider we play in Europe as well as both cups isn't too bad. Probably equates to say 3/4 PL games a season.
It's just this misconception that got thrown around last season by people who hated Smalling and so made up shit.
edit - Nice edit by the way