Romeo Lavia has provided an injury update after being substituted in the second half of Sunday’s draw against Arsenal.
Lavia joined the Blues in the summer of 2023 from Southampton in a deal worth up to £58m, but his debut season was ruined by injury.
The Belgian was limited to just 32 minutes of action, but this season has seen him feature on a more regular basis, which is great news for the Blues.
Lavia offers injury update amid Arsenal scare
Lavia impressed in pre-season and started the first game of the campaign against Manchester City, but picked up another injury as he came on as a late substitute against Servette, which forced him to miss four Premier League games.
The 20-year-old came back into the team at the expense of Enzo Fernandez against Liverpool, and he’s subsequently started the last four games, with Maresca preferring to go with Lavia and Moises Caicedo as his first choice pairing.
Lavia recently admitted he’s had a great connection with Caicedo since day one and you can see the team has a better balance and more defensive stability when the duo play.
As has been the case with the likes of Wesley Fofana and Reece James, Chelsea are managing Lavia’s minutes carefully to ensure he doesn’t suffer any injury set backs.
There was concern when the 20-year-old was forced off in the second half against Arsenal having gone down moments before.
Lavia has joined up with the Belgian team and it was unclear if we would remain with the squad, but he’s offered a positive update in good news for Chelsea fans.
“I received a little blow, at the moment, we are testing to see if it is okay, but it should be fine, I think,” he told RTL Info.
Lavia is set for a key role this season and Chelsea will desperately be hoping he can stay fit for the majority of the campaign as they are a bit light in terms of depth in the defensive midfield area.
With the fixtures coming thick and fast in the build-up to Christmas it will be interesting to see how Marsesca uses Lavia in this busy period.
