Mauricio Pochettino dismisses claims linking Chelsea’s injury crisis to training methods after midfielder Romeo Lavia’s season-ending setback.
Lavia, with just 32 minutes of playtime, suffered successive injuries since his debut, fueling concerns.
Despite Pochettino’s intense training regimen facing scrutiny amid Chelsea’s injury woes, the manager contends that Lavia’s struggles do not reflect training deficiencies.
Chelsea’s injury list grows, with nine players sidelined, including recent additions Trevoh Chalobah, Carney Chukwuemeka, and Robert Sanchez.
Amidst mounting concerns, Pochettino stands firm, emphasizing individual circumstances over systemic issues in the team’s fitness challenges.
Pochettino on Lavia’s reoccurring injuries.
“It’s difficult to explain the situation because I am not a doctor and be precise with the information. The most important thing is to make clear that in nine months, only a few weeks he was with us, training with us.
“He arrived and he could not train. When the club signed him, he was injured…I think it was his hip, or I don’t know, that was the problem. Then when he started to train with us, he suffered a knock in his feet.
“After he was training with us for a few weeks, he was available against Wolverhampton but he didn’t go in, and then against Crystal Palace he played 30 minutes and got injured in his quad and never again had the possibility to train with us.
“I don’t know, you showed me, ‘the methods of Pochettino are so hard’, no? But he didn’t train with me. He is sad. It is a sad situation. We hope he can become stronger and for sure, we are going to help him to become stronger and be available for the pre-season and the next season to show his quality.”
Pochettino mentioned experiencing a comparable injury situation in just one of his 15 seasons as a manager.
Looking ahead, his next challenge against Premier League strugglers Burnley looms, yet he stresses that Chelsea must not underestimate Vincent Kompany’s team.
“It’s always going to be difficult,” he said of Saturday’s opponents. “I think it’s a team that plays very free, they feel freedom to play. They run a lot, they are a very physical team with good players, good young players.
“It is going to be tough. For us, it’s always tough because we need to be in a different place. We need to win, we need to perform well. Always in the Premier League you are never going to find an easy game. Burnley are a very exciting team to watch. It is going to be difficult.”
