Chelsea have already signed £23m Romeo Lavia transfer replacement as huge injury blow revealed

Chelsea may have already signed the perfect replacement for Romeo Lavia as the midfielder looks set to miss yet more action before making his debut for the club.

The Belgian international joined the Blues in a deal worth roughly £58million, following an intense back and forth between them and Liverpool. In the end, the allure of Stamford Bridge won over, but with it came the news that it would take some time before he'd be fit enough to play.

«Lavia, after we assessed him, I think he still needs a few weeks to be ready to be involved with the team,» Mauricio Pochettino said when asked about his fitness in August. «In his conditioning he’s working to try to catch his team-mates. For Romeo we need to wait a few weeks to be with the team.»

Unfortunately for those fans and the head coach himself waiting to see what Lavia is capable of, a possible debut has been pushed back to October at the earliest. That's because football.london understands the 19-year-old is set to miss over one month of action due to an ankle injury picked up at Cobham.

It's yet another injury blow to Pochettino in a growing list of frustrating absences he and his coaching staff are facing during the international break. Luckily for him, some of the work in the transfer market has handed the boss a deeper squad than he may have expected.

Chelsea news and transfers LIVE — Two injury updates, Romeo Lavia blow, Mudryk latest, Watkins move

One solution is a lineup the coach has used before that consists of Conor Gallagher, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo in a midfield trio. However, with the former two looking to get forward as much as possible, there may be the need for another deeper-lying midfield option.

One of those at his disposal isLesley Ugochukwu, who