Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has acknowledged an injury concern for midfielder Romeo Lavia during the Blues’ 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.
Lavia, who was a £58 million signing in the summer, made his long-awaited debut by playing the final 30 minutes of the victory at Stamford Bridge.
However, the excitement of his debut was dampened as Pochettino revealed that, by the end of the game, Lavia could hardly walk. The midfielder is set to undergo fresh medical checks after experiencing another problem, raising concerns about his fitness and availability for upcoming matches.
“He feels something, some issue,” Pochettino said. “We need to check and hope it’s not [bad].
“I’m a little bit worried. I don’t know, because if you were watching the game [against Crystal Palace] you cannot appreciate I was changing the position with Lavia at the end because he was struggling to run. We will see what is going on.
“Hopefully it is not a big issue and he can play with us again. Important player that will recover and it is going to be a shame if we cannot use him in the next few games.”
In addition to the injury concern for Romeo Lavia, winger Mykhailo Mudryk also underwent a scan after the game, having limped off with 20 minutes to go during Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace. The extent of Mudryk’s injury is yet to be determined.
As Chelsea concludes the year 2023, they are set to face Luton Town at Kenilworth Road. Luton Town, having embraced their role as underdogs, are currently on a two-game winning streak.
The match will be a challenging end to the year for Chelsea, considering the injury concerns and the form of their opponents.
“I think that game against Crystal Palace is a good example that we need to go there, to Luton, and to think it is going to be really tough,” Pochettino said of the upcoming game. “The stadium, the fans, it is a team that loves to fight, loves to work really, really hard.
“It is so difficult if you watch the last few games at their stadium, it’s always tough for all of the opponents. If we want to get a good result, we need to be ready to of course play football, but we need to match their desire, the capacity to fight in every single goal. It’s going to be a good test for us. It’s the challenge to be consistent. For us now, it’s to go there and first of all to fight, be clever, be focused and then try to win the game.”