Enzo Maresca’s injury worries mount with Fofana and Lavia sidelined for Chelsea

Chelsea will be without Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia for Sunday’s game away against Brentford as injury continues to disrupt head coach Enzo Maresca’s push for a top-four finish.

Thursday’s 1-0 win over Tottenham at Stamford Bridge moved the Blues back into the Champions League spots and made it five victories in six in all competitions, with comebacks for Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson and Noni Madueke helping facilitate a return to the expansive football absent from recent displays.

Chelsea were good value for their derby win, earned via a second-half header from Enzo Fernandez, and largely held Spurs at bay despite the absence of Fofana and Lavia, who when fit are key figures in the spine of Maresca’s team.

Lavia has made only two Premier League starts since December 1 and after making his comeback as a late substitute in the 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in March has suffered a setback in his rehabilitation from a hamstring injury.

Fofana, who came back earlier than expected from a hamstring injury last month and started the games against Leicester and Arsenal, has a muscle problem and will likely now return later than Lavia.

“Romeo looks a little bit better injury compared to Wes,” said Maresca. “Romeo will probably be back earlier.

“(Fofana) has a muscle problem a few days ago, we are waiting for more checks.

“In the first game at home (against Brentford on December 14, a 2-1 win) both were injured and we played with Tosin (Adarabioyo) and Levi (Colwill). We dealt quite well knowing that Brentford are physically strong.

“I love Josh (Acheampong, the 18-year-old academy graduate) but he needs the right moment. If we need him, for sure he is ready to play.”

Former Southampton midfielder Lavia has been a significant absence since being forced off at half-time during December’s 4-3 win away against Spurs, and his playing time since moving to Chelsea in 2023 has been severely limited by injury.

He made a single substitute appearance last season and hopes during the first half of this campaign that his fitness issues were behind him have been dashed.

Maresca said a managed reacclimatisation for Lavia will be his preference, as has been pursued with captain Reece James.

“If you compare Romeo’s games this season to last season, he already improved,” he said. “The target is just to try to keep him fit as much as we can and next year to play more games than this season.

“It’s a similar situation what we are trying to do with Reece James. Reece is one of our best players – why was he on the bench (against Spurs)? It’s because we are trying to take care of him. We know in this moment he cannot play every three days.”

Maresca said that recent criticism of his team’s performances and results since Christmas may have been influenced by the excellent form they showed earlier in the campaign when they briefly went second.

“I think all season, the first five or six months because we were second, probably the expectation changed a little bit. But all season we have been top four, top five, we have been there.”