Romeo Lavia is viewed as the future of Chelsea's midfield but the Belgian talent has struggled to maintain fitness this season having made just one Premier League appearance during his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge
Romeo Lavia's physio has shared his bemusement at the Chelsea midfielder's rotten luck with injuries. David Bombeke, founder of physiotherapy company Rev.Training, has worked with both the Belgian and Chelsea in a bid to maintain the 21-year-old's fitness.
But even he has been left baffled by Lavia's misfortune following a series of substantial muscular issues. Lavia made just one Premier League appearance in his debut season at Stamford Bridge - playing just 22 minutes - following his £53million transfer from Southampton in August 2023. He's also featured just 11 times in the top-flight this term after recently sealing his return to action from the bench in the 1-0 defeat at Arsenal.
Bombeke told Belgian newspaper HLN : “A one-off serious injury is also a setback of course but this, he rolls from injury to injury and has been out for a long time a few times. Then questions gradually arise.
"Given the circumstances, he's dealing with it well. Of course, something like that gets into your head, but Romeo realises that it can be solved. He doesn't see it fatalistically - this is going to stop one day, right?"
Having missed five Premier League matches with a hamstring strain over the festive period, Lavia was finally back on the pitch for the 2-2 draw against Bournemouth in January.
However, he got injured again and would sit out of the next six league matches but there is now cautious optimism the ex-Manchester City youth starlet will be fit to play a part in Chelsea's quest for both Champions League qualification and Conference League glory.
Enzo Maresca recently said of the Belgian: “Last year he played one game and this year he has played around 15 games. If we see it that way then it is an improvement. More or less the same thing happened with Wes [Fofana]. Last year he played zero games and this year he was always playing.
“You cannot go from one season where you play no games to the next playing 40 games. You have to be happy with 20-25 and probably the year after you can play 40.
"For Romeo I feel sad for him because I know he wants to be part of the game every weekend but unfortunately he is injured again. But hopefully he can be back and help us in the last games of the season because we have just 16 games of the season left and we hope to have Romeo back for the last 10.”