Journalists can’t believe what Maresca said about injured star – he has to repeat | OneFootball

Moises Caicedo has been a total machine for Chelsea and Enzo Maresca this season, racking up thousands of minutes with very little cover in the team.

His most like for like replacement, Romeo Lavia, has been out for a lot of the season, and in his absence Caicedo has started week in, week out at the base of midfield, racking up 9 yellow cards in the process. That means, should he be booked against Leicester this weekend, he will miss the games against Arsenal and Tottenham to come.

Maresca was asked about this situation in the press conference today. This discussion of Caicedo’s potential unavailability quickly turned into a discussion about Lavia’s surprise potential availability instead:

“The position of Moises, if you see his background, last year he had 11 to 12 yellow cards, the year before the same, because he’s a midfielder. You are in the traffic. Sometimes you have to make some fouls. It’s normal. Hopefully, he can avoid that until the end, knowing that probably it’s difficult, but the good thing is that we have also Romeo [Lavia] now, he’s started with us already. He can be back. We need to be ready. Reece can be a midfielder like tonight so we’ll see.”

Not quite able to believe their ears that the midfielder could indeed be back as soon as this weekend, the journalists pressed for more details:

“Romeo could be fit, but not playing from the start,” Maresca responded when asked if the Belgian would be ready to start this weekend.

Lavia return can be turning point

Romeo Lavia lies stricken after a blow to the head.

Even if he’s just a sub, Lavia’s return would be a total game changer for this squad, reinforcing the position most in need of reinforcement (outside striker, of course).

If we can get Caicedo to 60 minutes on Sunday with no yellow and we have a 2 goal lead, Lavia can see out the game and the Ecuador star will have survived another week without suspension.