ROMEU BLOW: Looking for a holding midfielder?

Oriol Romeu is out for the season after surgery on his knee the club have confirmed and it will be a major blow for Rafa Benitez and his plans for the remainder of the season.

Romeu had anterior cruciate reconstruction surgery and medial meniscus repair after suffering a knee injury in the first half of Saturday's win at Sunderland and it's been confirmed that he is out for six months which in turn, rules him out for the remainder of our season.

With Mikel unavailable due to suspension for the Leeds League Cup fixture and Aston Villa at home on the 23rd, Benitez has an immediate problem. We do not have another recognised holding midfielder in the squad.

In addition to this, Mikel will miss part of the season next month due to the African Cup of Nations so who fills his boots?

I wrote last week that David Luiz should be pushed into midfield and we have already seen early signs of that in the Champions League for the last fifteen minutes or so. Luiz to me, is the only other option to play alongside Ramires/Oscar in that position as I can't see those two being paired next to each other.

There has been speculation that Benitez had already identified areas that he felt were weak to Abramovich and Emenalo and the holding midfield role was one of them.

With the news that Romeu is out for the season and Mikel will be missing part of the season, expect Chelsea to make a move in the January window to bring someone else in. The question is:

Who is available in that position that could come in a do a job for us? 

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Carefree & KTBFFH!