Chelsea 'expecting October return for Romeo Lavia'

During the closing month of the summer transfer window, the Blues were consistently linked with the acquisition of the Southampton midfielder.

The West Londoners eventually fended off competition from the likes of Liverpool to sign the 19-year-old for £53m plus add-ons.

Upon his arrival, head coach Mauricio Pochettino immediately indicated that the Belgium international would require a number of weeks to get up to speed at the club's training ground.

This was a consequence of a stop-start pre-season for the youngster, who did not represent the Saints from the back end of July through to completing his move to Chelsea.

However, last week, it was reported that Lavia had sustained an ankle injury during training when the majority of the squad were away on international duty.

At the time, the indication was that the former Manchester City prospect had sustained ligament damage, leaving Chelsea to anticipate a lengthy period on the sidelines for one of their major pieces of business from the summer.

According to the Daily Mail, Chelsea are under the belief that Lavia will spend as many as six weeks on the sidelines.

Should that prove to be correct, that would see Lavia miss as many as seven matches in all competitions, including six in the Premier League.

During that period, Chelsea meet Bournemouth, Aston Villa, Fulham, Burnley, Arsenal and Brentford in the top flight, as well as Brighton & Hove Albion in the EFL Cup.

That said, Lavia would realistically not have come into contention for a start until after the first two of those encounters, Pochettino likely to have waited until the showdown with Brighton.

Chelsea remain well placed to cope with Lavia's absence with Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo, Conor Gallagher and Lesley Ugochukwu at Pochettino's disposal.

Nevertheless, Lavia has joined a long Chelsea injury list with Carney Chukwuemeka and Christopher Nkunku among those whose absences impact on what Pochettino can do with his remaining options in the centre of the pitch.