New Chelsea signing Romeo Lavia has been ruled out for an extended period of time due to injury, delaying his debut for the Blues after Southampton move.
The Belgian is now expected to be out for at least six weeks after having suffered an ankle injury that has kept him out of action ever since signing for Chelsea at the end of August.
The 19-year-old joined Chelsea from Southampton after a long-drawn-out transfer battle between Chelsea and Liverpool saw both him and Moises Caicedo arrive at Stamford Bridge at the end of the summer transfer window.
The Blues paid the Saints £58 million for the teenager but he is yet to feature for Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
Lavia sustained an ankle injury in training on Thursday last week and subsequently went for a scan the day after. It is being reported that he has sustained ankle ligament damage and this could keep him sidelined for over a month, meaning he will be missing at least five more games for his new club.
There has been a lot of discussion around the high price Chelsea have paid for a relatively inexperienced youngster and this elongated absence is only adding to the pressure on the young midfielder.
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The injury will also surely be of concern to Pochettino, who is looking to find the right balance in his team after a poor start to the new Premier League season. Chelsea have lost two and won only one of their first four league games.
The Argentine coach is also without several other players with as many as nine outfield players being sidelined due to injury concerns. New signing Christopher Nkunku is one of the names on a long injury list at Cobham.
Centre-backs Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana are also out injured with the latter being out for the whole season with an ACL injury. Badiashile, along with captain Reece James and Trevor Chalobah are out with hamstring injuries.
Mykhailo Mudryk, Carney Chukwuemeka, Armando Broja and goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli round off the list of absentees.
Lavia will be hoping to return back to full fitness and get his Chelsea career underway as soon as possible. He impressed in his first season in the Premier League at Southampton after he arrived there from Manchester City’s academy last summer.
Chelsea are hoping to see the Belgian international return to the first team after the next international break in October.
