Mauricio Pochettino explains Romeo Lavia injury scare against Crystal Palace

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has admitted midfielder Romeo Lavia suffered an injury scare during the Blues' 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Lavia, a £58m signing during the summer, missed the first four months of the season due to a handful of fitness problems but finally made his long-awaited debut when he played the final 30 minutes of the victory at Stamford Bridge.

The excitement of his debut quickly turned to concern, however, as Pochettino admitted Lavia could hardly walk by the end of the game and needed fresh medical checks after suffering another problem.

"He feels something, some issue," Pochettino said. "We need to check and hope it’s not [bad].

"I'm a little bit worried. I don't know, because if you were watching the game [against Crystal Palace] you cannot appreciate I was changing the position with Lavia at the end because he was struggling to run. We will see what is going on.

"Hopefully it is not a big issue and he can play with us again. Important player that will recover and it is going to be a shame if we cannot use him in the next few games."

Winger Mykhailo Mudryk was also sent for a scan after the game after limping off with 20 minutes to go.

Chelsea will end a torrid 2023 with a trip to Kenilworth Road to face a Luton Town side who have embraced their role as underdogs this year and are currently on a two-game winning streak.

"I think that game against Crystal Palace is a good example that we need to go there, to Luton, and to think it is going to be really tough," Pochettino said of the upcoming game. "The stadium, the fans, it is a team that loves to fight, loves to work really, really hard.

"It is so difficult if you watch the last few games at their stadium, it's always tough for all of the opponents. If we want to get a good result, we need to be ready to of course play football, but we need to match their desire, the capacity to fight in every single goal. It's going to be a good test for us. It’s the challenge to be consistent. For us now, it's to go there and first of all to fight, be clever, be focused and then try to win the game."

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