“He has improved…” – Maresca’s farcical comments about midfielder’s worrying situation | OneFootball

After a first half of the season where Chelsea were pretty blessed in terms of injuries, things have started to get a little ragged since Christmas.

The latest blow is Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu both going down with hamstring problems last Monday night. They joined Welsey Fofana and Romeo Lavia from the core first team group on the sidelines.

The news about those two in today’s presser was good – Enzo Maresca said they’re both expected back after the international break in March, around the same time that Jackson should be back.

“It happens. It is football and they can get injuries. Unfortunately we have our injured players they more or less had the same problems the year before. If you have injuries one year, the year after you are going to struggle. It’s normal,” Maresca said philosophically.

But his words on Lavia in particular were a little farcical:

“Romeo, in terms of numbers, he has improved compared to last season with games played. Hopefully he can finish well the last part of the season and be more fit next season.”

Lavia played one game last season – and didn’t make it all the way through that. If Maresca knows that, that’s a really silly thing to say. If he doesn’t know that – then why comment on Lavia’s injury history at all?

Lavia joins growing injury prone cohort at Chelsea

Romeo Lavia lies stricken after a blow to the head.

Our concerns with Lavia are growing by the week. Last season was a disaster – he was out from the start of the season, played one game, and then missed the rest of the campaign. The idea was to bring him back really slowly from that, and he had all year to prepare, but this season he’s already had 3 separate injuries and has missed the majority of games. He’s started 8 Premier League matches in total.

The same can be said of Benoit Badiashile, who is on his 6th injury since joining Chelsea just two years ago. Fofana has had the worst run of all.