Enzo Maresca makes worrying Romeo Lavia injury admission after cruel Chelsea blow

Enzo Maresca has provided an update on Romeo Lavia following Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Qarabag. The 21-year-old midfielder suffered an injury in the opening minutes of the match at the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium on Wednesday night, and he was replaced by Moises Caicedo.

Speaking to reporters in Baku, the Blues boss said: "We feel a shame for him, especially for him. He's not able to be fit for a long, long period. We will see now. It's too early to understand what kind of injury. I think it's his quad."

Maresca was more than aware of the risk in starting Lavia, likening his situation to that of Reece James. Before the long-haul trip to Azerbaijan, he outlined his plan for the Belgian.

"The main target for Romeo now is to be fit," said Maresca. "Don't get any injuries. For me, at this moment, Romeo is where Reece was more or less one year ago in terms of back after a long time. We need to manage him every minute, every day, every second.

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"And the target with him is just to keep him fit. So, he's training with us. He's OK. He's 100 per cent fit. But, we need to be very careful with him because we don't want him to be out again and finally he can enjoy being a football player."

Maresca added: "In the Forest game, we planned for him 45 minutes. Then Ajax, I think he played one hour, 70 minutes. The other day against Tottenham, when he was on, he was very good.

"We are happy with Romeo. We are happy with the way he's progressing. And the only thing we want is to keep him fit. So, I would like to have Romeo inside the pitch always. But it's my duty to try to protect also him."

Lavia looks set to join Cole Palmer and Pedro Neto in the treatment room at Cobham. The former, who has been nursing a groin injury this season, could be back in time to face Barcelona at Stamford Bridge later this month.

On Tuesday, Maresca said: "We hope so, but with Cole we try to plan, we try to schedule, you know, at the beginning. Then we need to review that. So , in this moment,in this moment we go day by day with Cole.

"He's not taking any session with the team. And we have Benoit Badiashile that probably can be available after the international break, and that is for us is a huge news."

As for Neto, he picked up a knock in the 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend. When quizzed on the Chelsea winger, Maresca said: "Yeah, not a problem, just a small issue. So we try to protect him. He's not involved in tomorrow's game."

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