The talk around Cole Palmer‘s (£10.4m) troublesome groin rumbles on as we head towards Gameweek 6.
Palmer was forced off after 20 minutes of Chelsea’s defeat to Manchester United on Saturday, with Enzo Maresca saying that he was “not 100%” even ahead of kick-off.
PALMER: MONDAY’S LATEST
Maresca has been facing the media again this morning ahead of the Blues’ EFL Cup tie with Lincoln City. Cole Palmer (groin), naturally, was top of the agenda.
“Cole probably is the only one that we need to assess a little bit. The rest, they are okay, just recovering from the last week when we played three games in a row.
“He did already a huge effort on last Saturday to try to play the game. Again, he tried Saturday morning, he did the test, he was okay but not 100%. But he wants to be there to help teammates to be there in that kind of game. But unfortunately, then we had 10 players and also it was painful, so we decided to change it. And it’s more day by day, week by week, game by game to see how it is and decide what we do.” – Enzo Maresca
Palmer’s boss was then asked if surgery was an option.
“The medical staff, they didn’t mention to me about surgery until today. Now, I don’t know if in the next days or the next weeks, but I don’t think so, to be honest.” – Enzo Maresca on Cole Palmer
The above quotes could be interpreted as ‘surgery was discussed today’, of course. However, the consensus seems to be that Maresca meant that ‘it hasn’t been discussed at all up until this point’.
OTHER CHELSEA TEAM NEWS
Maresca didn’t have any other major concerns ahead of Tuesday’s game.
Moises Caicedo and Joao Pedro were mentioned as players with “small problems” but this sounded more like Maresca laying the groundwork for a complete midweek breather.
“We have some players with small problems from already a long time, like Moi [Caicedo], like Joao [Pedro], that they are trying to manage a little bit themselves. But then the rest, they are okay.” – Enzo Maresca
Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia (both match fitness) have returned to training and their manager is hopeful “they can be available very soon” but this game comes too soon for that duo.
Levi Colwill (knee), Dario Essugo (thigh), Liam Delap (hamstring) and Mykhailo Mudryk (suspended) are also out.
So too are Robert Sanchez and Marc Guiu. The former is suspended for one domestic game after his red card on Saturday, while the latter is cup-tied.
Both will be available in Gameweek 6.
