Chelsea's Romeo Lavia ruled out until December due to ankle injury

Romeo Lavia is yet to make his debut

Chelsea suffered another injury blow as their Belgian midfielder Romeo Lavia continues to struggle with an ankle injury and will remain out of action.

The 19-year-old joined the London club from Southampton in the summer and is yet to make his Chelsea debut. Reports from the Daily Mail suggest that this debut might get delayed until December.

Upon his arrival, head coach Mauricio Pochettino made it clear that the youngster would require a number of weeks to get up to speed ahead of making his bow for the club in the Premier League.

However, during the September international break, Lavia sustained an ankle ligament injury during training, it initially been expected that he would miss approximately six weeks.

Instead, in his final press conference before the October equivalent, Pochettino revealed that Lavia would not be ready to return for the game with Arsenal on October 21.

Chelsea were without 12 first-team players against Bournemouth but Noni Madueke and Marc Cucurella are also pushing to return against Villa.

Armando Broja and Benoit Badiashile are both pushing to make comebacks and could soon be eased in from the bench, with their returns seen as increasingly imminent.

Broja has been out since December after knee surgery, while Badiashile has been sidelined since May after hamstring surgery.

Reece James and Carney Chukwuemeka are both doing solo training sessions with ball work. They will slowly be re-introduced into Mauricio Pochettino’s training sessions and are hopeful of a return in the coming weeks.

Trevoh Chalobah is slightly behind James and Chukwuemeka in his recovery process, having also suffered a hamstring injury in the same training session as James last month.

Christopher Nkunku and Wesley Fofana remain out longer term. Nkunku hopes to return in December but Fofana could be out for the season after knee surgery.