Chelsea will be without Cole Palmer until after the next international break at least, with Enzo Maresca now having to cope with an injury crisis knocking on double-digit casualties.
As well as Palmer missing their next three matches versus Brighton and Liverpool in the Premier League and Benfica in the Champions League due to his groin issue, Maresca has revealed Tosin Adarabioyo and Wesley Fofana will likewise miss the same period.
Adarabioyo has a calf problem while Fofana showed concussion symptoms after completing the full 90 versus Lincoln in the Carabao Cup – a game in which Chelsea’s second-choice goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen punched him in the head when trying to clear a cross.
Levi Colwill, Liam Delap and Dario Essugo are already sidelined, while Maresca is unsure whether Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile are ready to return to the squad that will face Brighton. Marc Guiu also missed the trip to Lincoln with a niggle while Josh Acheampong and Joao Pedro only returned to training as of Thursday after an illness and an injury respectively.
Unhelpfully, Facundo Buonanotte is unable to face his parent club Brighton on Saturday either, when the loanee would have been the likeliest candidate to fill in for Palmer at No 10.
Cole Palmer will not play for Chelsea against Brighton this weekend – or Liverpool next week
Maresca fears their growing injury list is a direct consequence of their long run at the Club World Cup, where they were crowned world champions in the United States, beating Paris Saint-Germain in a final dominated by Palmer’s brilliance.
Palmer has agreed, following a conversation with the club’s medical staff, that he needs time to rest amid his ongoing groin injury which has forced him out of recent games. The 23-year-old limped out of their loss at Manchester United, looked uncomfortable towards the end of their European clash with Bayern Munich, and withdrew from the line-up at West Ham in the warm-up.
Chelsea do not want to send Palmer for surgery and hope a few weeks’ rest will enable him to recover, with him unlikely to be able to represent Thomas Tuchel’s England next month.
Maresca said at his pre-Brighton press conference: ‘We have decided to protect Cole in terms of him not getting a worse injury. Just to see if with rest he can be able to recover 100 per cent and be completely fit after the international break.
‘I don’t think he needs surgery. It’s just a matter of managing his pain and his groin. The amount of games is something that can happen so this is the reason why we try to be conservative with him, to give him rest and hopefully he can be 100 per cent fit after the international break.’
Despite having Axel Disasi in the ‘bomb squad’, Maresca suggested it is highly unlikely that he will be brought back in to the first-team fold to help with their lack of central-defender options.
