Chelsea avoided a major setback after Rom\u00e9o Lavia limped out of Belgium\u2019s UEFA Nations League meeting with France, only for the midfielder to later clarify that the issue was not an injury. The scene on Monday night briefly unsettled Stamford Bridge, where his departure after 85 minutes prompted immediate concern.<\/p>\n
Lavia has not had an easy time physically since joining Chelsea, with muscular problems affecting his last three years. That history made the sight of him seeking attention on the ground particularly worrying. Yet the midfielder, who was excellent against France, made clear that the problem was simply fatigue and cramps.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt had been a long time since I\u2019d played at such an intensity,\u201d Lavia told Belgian outlet DH . \u201cIt\u2019s a process. From the start, I felt very comfortable; it\u2019s the kind of match everyone loves to play. It\u2019s all coming naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n
His performance was a strong one. In Belgium\u2019s narrow 1\u20130 defeat, decided by Michael Olise after Lavia had already gone off, he completed all 37 of his passes and produced 10 defensive contributions. It was his first senior start for Belgium, and another sign that he is beginning to show the level Chelsea have waited for.<\/p>\n
This season, Lavia has been available regularly for Xabi Alonso, appearing in six of Chelsea\u2019s first seven matches and starting five of them. Even so, he is still waiting to complete 90 minutes in an official game for the club.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s midfield has already been stretched. Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo had previously helped cover Lavia\u2019s absences, but Caicedo has been carrying an issue since the start of the term and Fern\u00e1ndez has gone to Manchester City. After Chelsea failed to find a replacement, Reece James has spent much of the season alongside Lavia in midfield, though he too is now dealing with a fresh fitness problem, as confirmed by England boss Thomas Tuchel.<\/p>\n
Lavia was left out of the disastrous 3\u20130 defeat against Brentford before the international break, when Jordan Henderson and Valent\u00edn Barco formed Alonso\u2019s midfield partnership, with Henderson making his first Chelsea appearance and Barco his first Premier League start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lavia\u2019s Belgium exit looked worrying, but Chelsea learned it was only cramps, not a fresh injury.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,2035],"tags":[242,180],"class_list":["post-20885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-chelsea-news","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}