When Romeo Lavia will get his next minutes for Chelsea – and how that affects Maresca’s plans | OneFootball

Romeo Lavia’s second season at Chelsea has been only marginally better than his first. He’s been injured a lot more than he’s been fit since coming to Chelsea in the summer of 2023, and we’d all but given up on him making an impact in this campaign.

However, it seems his latest return is just around the corner. According to Kieran Gill’s Chelsea Confidential Newsletter, the Belgian trained fully today without any issues. That means he’s expected to return and pick up some first minutes since early March this weekend as we face Everton in the early kick off on Saturday.

He will only appear off the bench, of course, but it’s still an important step. the following week we have the first leg of our Europa Conference League game, plus a Sunday special against Liverpool, so having an extra body around (even just off the bench) could be a huge boost.

We would imagine if he plays 20 minutes or so on Saturday without issues we could see him for 45 minutes against Djurgarden. By the time we play our second leg against them, two weeks tomorrow, he could be ready to start and play a full game.

How long he stays fit once he’s back is another question… but there are just 7 matches left (8 if we reach the Conference League final) in the season, and he can yet play an important role.

Lavia brings new tactical options to Enzo Maresca

Enzo Maresca applauds the fans. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Lavia’s return is useful not just in taking the pressure off our remaining midfielders, but also in the tactical options it affords Enzo Maresca. We even saw Moises Caicedo used as a right back out of possession earlier in the season in quite an effective manner – could we see a return to that at some point before the campaign is out?