Roméo Lavia is making good progress but isn’t quite ready to return from injury just yet

Roméo Lavia will miss Thursday’s game against Fulham as the supposedly minor injury he sustained against Spurs two weeks ago will now rule him out for a second consecutive league game.

Head coach Enzo Maresca confirmed the news in yesterday’s pre-match press conference, adding that Wesley Fofana, Benoît Badiashile and Reece James will also be out (only James is currently close to returning to that trio).

“Roméo is still recovering, he is doing much, much better, but unfortunately he is not ready yet. Same situation with long-term injuries.”

-Enzo Maresca; Source: Football.London

Lavia was withdrawn at half-time against Spurs, described primarily as a tactical change but also as a precautionary measure due to a hamstring injury. Unfortunately, this precaution was actually justified, and perhaps a little too late, as this small hamstring problem has now cost Lavia at least two games – and perhaps more as the games get closer and closer. (In the meantime, we also had two UEFA Conference League games, but Lavia was not registered for this phase of the competition anyway.)

After missing virtually all of last season due to injuries (ankle, hamstring) and also a month earlier this season (another hamstring injury), we’ve finally been able to see what Lavia can bring to the mid-table table, so hopefully he can improve quickly and, more importantly, recovered, completely. He has played 10 games so far and started 7 of our 17 Premier League games.