After Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Qarabag on Wednesday, head coach Enzo Maresca said he didn’t know what was wrong with Romeo Lavia right away. In Baku, the midfielder left the pitch in the sixth minute as the Blues managed to pick up a point in the Champions League group stage.
Moises Caicedo replaced the teenager, while Maresca said evaluations are still pending. Lavia came in for about £58 million in 2023, but since then, he has had a lot of muscle problems. Tests are pending, so he is likely to miss Wolves on Saturday, as the head coach noted in his press conference:
“We don’t have an update on Roméo Lavia at the moment, so we need to wait to see some hours to do all the checks. It’s painful, so we need to do the checks. We tried to minimise minutes for him, but it still didn’t work. It’s a shame.”
Lavia only played for Chelsea once in 2023/24 because of problems with his ankle and hamstring. In 2024/25, he played in 22 games. He has played in some games this season after missing the first five because of muscle problems.
Caicedo, Fernandez, and Santos are still Chelsea’s main options in the middle, but the club is keeping an eye on Lavia’s health.
Chelsea 2-2 Qarabag: Match Review
Chelsea and Qarabag each got a point in Baku after Estevao shone and the hosts showed their mettle against the Club World Cup champions.
Caicedo came on right after Lavia’s pull-up and joined Enzo Fernandez and Andrey Santos in the midfield. Estevao scored the first goal for Chelsea, but Andrade and Jankovic scored for Qarabag. Alejandro Garnacho then tied the game in the second half.
The Swiss-format table shows that both teams have seven points, which means that Qarabag is still in the running for the knockouts. Chelsea’s next game is against Barcelona, and they need to get better at managing their games if they want to get into the top eight.