Injured Chelsea star using groundbreaking Virtual Reality tool that Martin Odegaard ‘completed’

Chelsea star Romeo Lavia showed Liam Rosenior the new skill he has been hard at work developing while injured upon his return to action.

Lavia impressed for the Blues Under-21s in their Premier League 2 fixture against Leeds, having been sidelined since November.

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The midfielder hasn’t played a minute since he was forced off after eight minutes in a 2-2 Champions League draw against Qarabag.

However, the 22-year-old completed 45 minutes at Cobham for Chelsea’s Under-21’s in what the club described as ‘a strong showing’.

Blues senior boss Rosenior was among the watching spectators, alongside Levi Colwill, Liam Delap, Cole Palmer and Tosin Adarabioyo.

Lavia was frequently given the ball under pressure by his young teammates against Leeds, and dealt with it well each time.

That’ll come as little surprise to Andreas Olsen, the chief executive for Be Your Best – the virtual reality company Lavia has since invested in.

The one-cap Belgium international not only holds stocks in the innovative VR Sports Training, but he is also a regular user.

“Players like Romeo Lavia used the tool quite a lot when he was injured,” Olsen told talkSPORT.com during an exclusive interview.

“Unfortunately, injured for a long time, but used the tool as a way to help him come back to the game.”

Lavia, who came across the football tech at Southampton before his £58million switch to Chelsea in 2023, is far from the only one.

Dejan Kulusevski, who hasn’t played since Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat to Crystal Palace last May, is also a fan, with Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, Marc Guehi, Benjamin Sesko, and Endrick all users as well.

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How does it work?

Be Your Best uses virtual reality and cognitive science to help players train their decision-making, scanning, and game intelligence.

talkSPORT.com were among the users who donned a VR headset in London to play out a simulation worthy of EA Sports.

As Lavia can attest, there were some initial teething issues reminiscent of a player returning from injury when first dropped in.

But soon, talkSPORT was achieving ‘excellent passes’ from the ultra-realistic AI system and scanned enough to get a crick in the neck.

Most notably, I was offered the opportunity to play at 120 per cent speed – and Arsenal captain Odegaard is the man to thank.

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Odegaard ‘completed’ the VR tech at 100 per cent speed, so naturally needed developers to design a mode befitting of his scanning skill.

Olsen revealed to talkSPORT: “He maxed out the 100 per cent speed. For him, it just felt normal because 100 per cent speed is the speed of the game that we actually get that situation from.

“And so what he wanted since he was injured, when he used it for the first time, he wanted to train even faster.

“So that when he came out on the pitch after the injury, things moved a bit slower, so that he could have more time with the ball, more perceived time with the ball.

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“When you get to that 100 per cent and above for us, it’s going to feel really, really hectic.”

“If you look at a player like Odegaard or a player like Xavi or [Andres] Iniesta, they are players that wouldn’t come out on top if you look at general football abilities like speed, strength, agility, these physical traits,” Olsen continued.

“I wouldn’t place Iniesta at the top in those types of physical traits as a footballer.

“But the one thing that makes him my favourite player of all players is his smartness and his ability to make fantastic decisions, his ability, and this also goes for Odegaard, his ability to find the right passes, find the passes that not necessarily everyone would have even seen.”

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How Real Madrid star trained in VR

In his return game, Lavia was tasked with dropping back to make a back three for Chelsea‘s Under-21s, a position he can train on Be Your Best.

In fact, fellow midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni used it to prepare to play as a makeshift centre-back for a LaLiga game against Osasuna.

“One of the things that he could really improve on was his ability to really understand his surroundings and make the fantastic decisions that I believe he is doing more and more now,” Olsen explained.

“And he has actually been one of our pro players that have used the product consistently in the last two years, consistently using our product to improve this particular skill, and I would say this has now become a strength.

“We’re not taking the whole kind of credit for this. So please don’t read it like this, but just being able to be a small part in his journey to actually become an even better version of the already good version that he was, that’s really, that’s huge for us.”

Be Your Best’s industry-leading tech is now being used in 80 countries by around 10,000 players and more than 100 clubs.

It was co-founded by Professor Geir Jordet, who named Chelsea legend Frank Lampard as one of his best case studies.

Yet it is one of the Coventry City‘s managers’ successors as England’s best attacking midfielder that stands out in the modern game.

“I would say in terms of the English players that I look up to today, fantastic scanner, Phil Foden,” Olsen revealed to talkSPORT.com.

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“The ability that he has, he has also said this in a few interviews, I think, where he regards this as one of his strengths, is the ability to turn in very, very, very small pockets.

“And his ability to, when he gets the ball, turn at a dime, because he knows what’s going on behind him. So he knows when to turn, when not to.

“And this is just an amazing piece of weaponry for Manchester City. When he is in form, and he knows, and he has a good day, he is so lethal, because he knows exactly what’s going on around him.”

That in turn has helped him form such a strong relationship with Haaland, who has used VR on national team duty with Norway.

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Olsen continued: “When you see a player like Haaland, for example, and you compare how he scans versus other forwards, he actually scans quite a lot more than the average forward.

“Haaland, if you really watch him deeply, you will see that he is always looking for the open space.

“He is always looking for, ‘Where can I run to open up space for my opponents or for my teammates?’

“If you watch him closely, you will see how much of his game is due to his ability to find those pockets and to find those spaces to put himself in the best position.

“So he is a fantastic scanner for a forward.

“Alongside his natural physicality, I would put scanning and his game intelligence as a forward as one of his biggest and best skills.”