Liam Rosenior makes Romeo Lavia admission amid positive Chelsea injury update

Liam Rosenior admitted that he cannot wait for the opportunity to work with Chelsea midfielder Romeo Lavia, who is still training individually amid injury recovery.

Lavia has been out since picking up a muscular injury in Chelsea's draw with Qarabag in the Champions League in early November.

He has since missed 17 more games for Chelsea, having previously missed several games at the start of the season.

According to Rosenior, Lavia has already been back on the grass, albeit not with the team yet.

"Romeo's on the pitch. He's not with the group, but seeing him out on the pitch doing his rehab, he's looking really, really good," Rosenior said in Thursday's press conference when speaking about Lavia.

"I think we all know, I know, I love him firstly as a lad, as a player. He's someone I would love to work with in the long term because he's just an outstanding footballer.

"The most important thing for him now is to make sure we don't push him too hard so that when he does come back, he's back for good, and I can get some real work into him tactically.

"But for me, he's a player that I can't wait to have back in the group at the same time, and I'm really, really looking forward to having him back with us."

Rosenior also confirmed that there is no expected return date for Lavia yet.

"No time frame. No time frame, that has to be," he explained.

"But it's right in terms of him coming back and being back for good."

Lavia's presence would have really helped Chelsea in recent weeks, given that Moises Caicedo had to miss a few games due to suspensions.

As a result, Chelsea had to rely on Andrey Santos as the only natural backup number six, with Reece James also playing in midfield on occasions.