Van Bommel: Why Belgium Are Making Pragmatic Decision On Romeo Lavia To Follow Chelsea's Lead | OneFootball

Belgium head coach Mark van Bommel admits he wants to be cautious with Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia’s fitness ahead of Friday’s Nations League clash with Turkiye.

Belgium will look to bounce back with a win against Turkiye, who sit last in Group A, following their 1-0 defeat to France on Monday.

It would therefore make a lot of sense if Van Bommel wanted to keep Lavia, who performed remarkably well against France, in the starting line-up to boost his team’s winning chances.

However, the Dutch tactician said he plans to play it safe with the Chelsea midfielder’s workload and not start him in back-to-back matches.

“Romeo came on as a substitute against Italy and played for 85 minutes against France. He did a fantastic job,” Van Bommel said about Lavia in his press conference on Thursday.

“You can safely assume that I won’t be starting him. Chelsea are being cautious with him, and so are we. We want to make the most of his qualities.”

Given Lavia’s injury record, this is clearly the reasonable approach.

The match against France was Lavia’s first career start for the national team, and only his third cap. He missed more than three years of international action between his debut in 2023 and his substitute appearance against Italy last week, mostly due to injury issues.

Even last season, he still missed 28 games across three injury spells. The season has started well for him, without any fitness problems, and hopefully it stays that way.

Lavia may still feature as a substitute against Turkiye and will have another chance to start against France next Monday.

Meanwhile, his Chelsea teammate Mike Penders will hope to make his senior debut for Belgium in the next two matches.

The young goalkeeper missed the previous two games due to a quadriceps injury, but he returned to training on Thursday.

Since Real Madrid star Thibaut Courtois decided not to play in Belgium’s Nations League campaign, Manchester United’s Senne Lammens has played the number one role for the team.

Other Chelsea players who are still on international duty are Emiliano Martinez (Argentina), Valentin Barco (Argentina), Estevao Willian (Brazil), Morgan Rogers (England), Maxence Lacroix (France), Jorrel Hato (Netherlands), Pedro Neto (Portugal), Josh Acheampong (England U-21s), and Geovany Quenda (Portugal U-21s).

Those who are not on international duty are either recovering from injuries or have resumed training at Cobham since Monday.

The Blues will be back in action in a home Premier League game against Bournemouth on October 10.