Chelsea are anxiously waiting on the results of further tests to see the extent of Cole Palmer’s injury. Minutes before Friday night’s resounding victory over West Ham United, it was confirmed that Palmer had dropped out of the squad due to an injury sustained in the warm-up at the London Stadium, with Estevao Willian deputising.
The Blues were without their – as Enzo Maresca described him – best player, but they did not need him against a poor Hammers side. Goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah secured an attacking masterclass from Chelsea in east London, as Palmer watched on from the bench.
“Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%,” Maresca told reporters post-match. “Today he tried the warm-up, but he felt something. So we prefer not to take any risk to get worse. And we’ll see in the next hours if it is something important or not. And then, for sure, Joao Pedro, Liam [Delap], Estevao, Jamie Gittens will be good for sure – they are all fantastic players.
“You can see that probably Liam and Joao are a little bit more ahead of the rest. But the reason why is because they were already here in England. Jamie needs to adapt a little bit, Estevao needs to adapt, [Jorrel] Hato needs time to adapt, but overall, we are very happy with the road there.”
Palmer does not usually pick up injuries but this comes as a reminder that he is human. The 23-year-old has played a quite frankly ridiculous amount of football over the past two years.
He featured for England Under-21s at the 2023 European U21 Championships and the following summer he represented the senior Three Lions side at Euro 2024. Most recently, of course, Palmer starred for Chelsea as they became world champions over in the United States. The man has had no break.
In fact, over the last two years, Palmer has made 122 appearances for club and country – a truly remarkable amount. An amount that should not be the case, but unfortunately is the reality for the modern day footballer. That itself is an argument for another day.
Last season, Maresca had Christopher Nkunku and Joao Felix as back-up options to Palmer in the No.10 role but the Chelsea head coach never really had full faith in either. Bar the Conference League, neither player really got a sniff in the first team. Understandably to an extent, Palmer played all but one Premier League match last season (with 36 of the 37 appearances being from the start) – and the one he missed was due to injury.
Felix has already departed the Blues this summer and Nkunku is expected to follow suit as we approach the final week of the transfer window. Chelsea are looking to sign Xavi Simons from RB Leipzig before the September 1 deadline, with talks between the two clubs continuing despite there being a big hold up.
Chelsea have been keen to offload numerous players before pressing forward with negotiations for the 22-year-old, who already has a broad agreement with the Blues over personal terms. Bayern Munich and Manchester City have both enquired for Simons, but the Netherlands international has made it clear that he wants a move to Stamford Bridge.
If Chelsea can wrap up a deal for Simons to arrive in SW6 – and that very much remains the expectation football.london understands – then Maresca will be hoping he can trust the Dutchman more than his predecessors in that role. And if so, then perhaps Chelsea will not have to rely on Palmer as heavily. Not in terms of goals and assists, but just his presence in the team.
Palmer has not been the generational, world-class version of himself since the turn of the year – bar his masterful performance at the FIFA Club World Cup over the summer. We all know it is still there, so this is not a dig at Chelsea’s No.10 but the side have proven in that time they can function really well without Palmer scoring in every other game.
Chelsea will be desperate for Palmer’s groin problem not to be anything serious but at the same time, it is a reminder of exactly why they are pursuing a deal for Simons. Joao Pedro can also play in the No.10 but he looks to be one of the No.9 options, particularly with Nicolas Jackson’s departure looking more and more likely.
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