Romeo Lavia injured again already? Chelsea boss Mauricio Pochettino reveals £53m signing was 'struggling to run' towards end of 32-minute Crystal Palace cameo

Lavia was injured on his Chelsea debut in his side's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in midweek. The £58 million ($73.7m) summer signing played the final 32 minutes of the clash at Stamford Bridge, having been injured since his arrival from Southampton in August. Now, manager Pochettino admits he is concerned about the 19-year-old, but hoped the midfielder's issue wasn't a big one.

The Argentine said on Friday: "He [Lavia] feels something, some issue. 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."

Lavia was part of Chelsea's huge summer spending spree, alongside Moises Caicedo, Christopher Nkunku, Cole Palmer, Axel Disasi, Nicolas Jackson and more. But the Belgian international has played just a matter of minutes and some of their other signings have not hit the ground running as hoped. If Lavia is injured once again, that is a big blow for the Blues.

After Saturday's trip to Kenilworth Road on Saturday, in what is their last game of 2023, Chelsea kick start 2024 with a home clash against Preston North End on January 6, followed by a trip to Middlesbrough three days later in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup.