Romeo Lavia missed Chelsea’s FA Cup final defeat to Manchester City because of a slight knock, Calum McFarlane has confirmed.
Injuries have plagued Lavia since arriving at Stamford Bridge from Southampton for £58million and he was a surprise absentee from the Blues’ matchday squad at the weekend.
The Belgian was an unused substitute the week prior as Chelsea drew with Liverpool at Anfield, having started successive games against Brighton, Leeds and Nottingham Forest.
McFarlane has now revealed that Lavia picked up a knock in training prior to the cup final, and given his injury record, no risks were taken.
"Romeo took a slight knock in the build-up to the game,” the Chelsea interim head coach explained. “Nothing major.
“But with Romeo, we didn't want to – I didn't want to – take that risk. We just have to be careful with players with an injury history."
McFarlane was speaking ahead of Chelsea’s final home game of the season when they take on a Tottenham side bidding to secure Premier League survival.
It remains to be seen if Lavia will shake off a knock to be available for selection, but the Blues have no other fresh injury concerns with Estevao and Jamie Gittens already ruled out.
McFarlane added: "No. They are going to train this afternoon. We’ll have a much better idea of where they are.
“We’ll have a look at how they look in training before any final thoughts.”
Also absent from recent matchday squads have been defensive pair Benoit Badisahile and Mamadou Sarr, though neither are injured.
"Yeah, they didn’t make the squad,” McFarlane revealed in the pre-Tottenham press conference on Monday morning. “They are training really hard."
