The Belgian midfielder, making just his fourth start of the season, lasted just five minutes in the club’s Champions League clash with Qarabag on Wednesday night in which the west London side drew 2-2.
24 hours before the incident, Maresca explained that the young midfielder must be protected as he slowly returned to the side since joining the Blues from Southampton for £58M in 2023.
“The main target for Romeo now is to be fit. Don’t get any injuries,” Maresca said on Tuesday. “For me, at this moment, Romeo is where Reece (James) was one year ago — coming back after a long period out.
“We need to manage him every minute, every day, every second. The target is to keep him fit and help him enjoy football again.”
Now, the Italian head coach says he is “ashamed” that Lavia is down-and-out once more in what is a crushing blow for the 21-year-old.
“We feel very ashamed, especially for him, because he’s not able to be fit for a long, long period,” Maresca said. “It’s not a recurrence of his hamstring problem; it looks like a quad injury. We’ll need to assess him further, but it doesn’t look good.”
Lavia made just one appearance during his debut season as he dealt with ankle and hamstring injuries. He was also left out of their Conference League winning squad, and he missed several games this season through injuries that have put his place under Maresca under serious threat.