Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has acknowledged an injury concern regarding midfielder Romeo Lavia following the Blues’ 2-1 victory over Crystal Palace.
Lavia, a summer signing for £58 million, faced a series of fitness issues that kept him out of action for the initial four months of the season. He finally made his much-anticipated debut, featuring in the last 30 minutes of the triumph at Stamford Bridge.
However, the jubilation of his debut turned to apprehension as Pochettino revealed that Lavia struggled to walk by the end of the game, prompting fresh medical assessments after encountering another problem.
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“He feels something, some issue,” expressed Pochettino. “We need to check and hope it’s not [serious]. 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. [He’s] an important player that will recover, and it is going to be a shame if we cannot use him in the next few games.”
Winger Mykhailo Mudryk also underwent a scan after limping off the field with 20 minutes remaining in the game.
As Chelsea concludes a challenging 2023 with a visit to Kenilworth Road to face Luton Town, who have embraced their underdog role and are presently on a two-game winning streak, Pochettino emphasized the need for his team to be prepared for a tough encounter.
“I think that game against Crystal Palace is a good example that we need to go there, to Luton, and think it is going to be really tough,” stated Pochettino. “The stadium, the fans, it is a team that loves to fight, loves to work really, really hard. It is so difficult if you watch the last few games at their stadium; it’s always tough for all of the opponents. If we want to get a good result, we need to be ready to, of course, play football, but we need to match their desire, the capacity to fight in every single goal. It’s going to be a good test for us. It’s the challenge to be consistent. For us now, it’s to go there and first of all to fight, be clever, be focused, and then try to win the game.”