Chelsea midfielder Rom\u00e9o Lavia is reported to be approaching a return to full fitness after missing more than three months following his absence since early November. Manager Liam Rosenior confirmed at the end of January that Lavia had returned to training but urged caution and patience, saying: \u201cIf they don\u2019t make that day, it looks bad on them when I know how hard Rom\u00e9o is working.\u201d<\/p>\n
Three weeks after Rosenior\u2019s update, the Daily Mail reports Lavia is \u201cnearing the end of a detailed rehabilitation programme,\u201d part of what the club describes as a meticulous plan to reduce the risk of recurrence. The one-cap Belgium international continued to work and train at the start of this week while the rest of the squad were given days off on Monday and Tuesday. When he is cleared fully fit, the expectation is that he will be eased back into match action.<\/p>\n
Lavia\u2019s progress matters because Chelsea\u2019s natural central midfield cover behind regular starters Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez and Mois\u00e9s Caicedo has been limited. D\u00e1rio Essugo has not played since the Club World Cup due to injury, leaving Andrey Santos as the primary backup. Fern\u00e1ndez has also been used further forward to cover for Cole Palmer\u2019s absences, and right backs Reece James and Malo Gusto have been tasked with filling emergency midfield roles.<\/p>\n
Chelsea were recently beaten by Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi-final but remain active in three competitions. Depending on results, a maximum of 23 games could still be played this season, with a minimum of 15 remaining. Between now and the first international break of 2026 at the end of March, the Blues face an intense run of eight matches across the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League. Key fixtures listed include Burnley (Feb. 21), Arsenal (March 1), Wrexham in the FA Cup fifth round (March 7) and Champions League last 16 ties on March 10\/11 and 17\/18, with a Premier League meeting against Newcastle on March 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rom\u00e9o Lavia nears full fitness after three months out; Chelsea braces for a congested March schedule<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6953,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,172],"tags":[944,1047,1089],"class_list":["post-6954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-epl","tag-andrey-santos","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6954","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=6954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6954\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}