When will Chelsea's Romeo Lavia return from injury?

Cameron Smith

• Updated: 27 Mar 2024 08:49 CDT
• 3 min read

It's easy to forget, but Romeo Lavia is a Chelsea player.

The 20-year-old joined the Blues for €62.1 million last summer after a stellar campaign at Southampton, with the Saints turning a tidy profit on the Belgian.

Lavia had signed for the south coast side for €22.3m from Manchester City in 2022 and Chelsea even launched an ambition bid to sign him in the same window as his move to St Mary’s.

READ MORE: Chelsea’s 10 most expensive transfers of all time

They were unsuccessful in their pursuit, however, and had to wait until 2023 to finally land their man.

It wasn’t easy, either, as Chelsea were forced to fight off competition from Liverpool, who also wanted to sign the talented midfielder.

However, it’s been seven months since Lavia’s move to Stamford Bridge, and he has played just 32 minutes of action for Chelsea. And it has now been confirmed that Lavia will not play for Chelsea again until the 2024-25 season.

READ MORE: Latest Chelsea transfer news

How many Chelsea games has Romeo Lavia played?

Lavia arrived in west London with a pre-existing ankle injury, suffered in pre-season, and he wasn’t able to make his Blues debut until 27 December against Crystal Palace.

The 20-year-old played the final 32 minutes of Chelsea’s narrow 2-1 win over Palace in late December, but immediately suffered another injury and hasn’t been seen since.

Mauricio Pochettino said at the start of February that it would be “impossible” for Lavia to return before the Carabao Cup final - which Chelsea lost to Liverpool - at the end of that month.

It was hoped that Lavia would return to action in March 2024, but it has now been confirmed that he will miss the entirety of the 2023-24 season.

Chelsea put out a statement on March 27 that "Romeo Lavia is to unfortunately miss the remainder of our 2023-24 campaign following a setback in his recovery.

"Recent medical assessments have confirmed that Lavia, who sustained a significant thigh injury against Crystal Palace back in December, will not feature again this season."

This means we will not see Lavia play again competitively for Chelsea until the 2024-25 season, and he will also miss Euro 2024.