£53m Chelsea injury blow ahead of Leeds United clash as manager admits he’s ‘ashamed’

Leeds United welcome Chelsea to Elland Road for a huge Premier League clash early next month.
Chelsea will be without midfielder Romeo Lavia for next month’s trip to Leeds United due to a muscle injury.

Lavia was handed just his fourth start of the season last week as Chelsea drew their Champions League game at Qarabag 2-2. But the midfielder barely kicked a ball in Azerbaijan before suffering a quadriceps injury inside four minutes, eventually needing to be replaced by Moises Caicedo.

The 21-year-old joined Chelsea from Southampton in a £53million deal two years ago but his time at Stamford Bridge has been blighted by injury. And the big-money midfielder now looks set for another spell on the sidelines which will see him miss next month’s trip to Elland Road.

Lavia will be out for at least one month after further assessment clarified the severity of his quad injury. That means he is almost certain to miss Chelsea’s midweek trip to Leeds on Wednesday, December 3, having made just 29 appearances across two-and-a-half years since leaving Southampton.

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“We feel very ashamed, especially for him, because he’s not able to be fit for a long, long period,” Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said after last week’s clash with Qarabag. “It’s not a recurrence of his hamstring problem; it looks like a quad injury. We’ll need to assess him further, but it doesn’t look good.”

Chelsea’s growing injury list ahead of Leeds United trip
Lavia is expected to join a number of other Chelsea players in missing next month’s trip to Elland Road. Talisman Cole Palmer has been out since September with a groin injury and his return keeps getting delayed, with the England international not expected back until December meaning he is unlikely to be fully fit in time to face Leeds.

Centre-back pair Benoit Badiashile and Levi Colwill are also set to miss out, the latter having been ruled out for the season after rupturing his ACL in the summer. Midfielder Dario Essugo is also out with a thigh injury that required surgery.

First-team trio Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez all asked to be substituted during last weekend’s 3-0 win over Wolves as they all manage fitness issues. The latter has withdrawn from international duty with Argentina due to an ongoing knee problem, but with around three weeks until they face Leeds all could be available.

Leeds only had two players missing through injury as of Sunday, with Willy Gnonto and Sebastiaan Bornauw unavailable for a disappointing 3-1 defeat at Nottingham Forest. The former has been in full team training for two weeks before that game and with the November international break providing another fortnight to build fitness, he should be fit to face Aston Villa at the end of next week.