Cole Palmer must wait a little longer for another chance to convince Thomas Tuchel on the England stage, but the delay may suit Chelsea just fine.<\/p>\n
Palmer has not featured for England since March 2026 and missed this summer\u2019s World Cup. A strong start to the 2026\/27 season had earned him a recall, and Tuchel accepted that he deserved the opportunity to show he belongs in the squad full-time. That opportunity now looks set to slip away for the time being.<\/p>\n
Inside Chelsea, there will be sympathy for the player, but also a clear sense that his absence from international duty could help club matters. The mood around the team is not especially bright after two defeats and a draw, yet Palmer has been one of the clearest positives under Xabi Alonso.<\/p>\n
His return to form has been reflected in the numbers. Four goals and two assists in seven games represent an encouraging opening stretch, and Palmer himself has spoken about enjoying his football again in Alonso\u2019s fluid forward line. Tactics have helped, but so has the value of a proper summer break.<\/p>\n
Last season was hindered by the lingering effects of a groin injury, and his output dropped to 11 goals and three assists in all competitions. Given that context, being left out of England\u2019s World Cup squad was painful but not unexpected. It also created the long recovery period he needed.<\/p>\n
For the first time in months, Palmer was able to step away from the demands of match football and focus purely on recovery between May and August. That pause has clearly paid off in the opening weeks of the campaign.<\/p>\n
Chelsea supporters wanted to see him back on the international stage, but few would oppose another three-week break if it produces the same level of sharpness. Tuchel, though, has made his stance clear. He values the same core of players and prioritises what he sees from them in an England shirt.<\/p>\n
Since Tuchel arrived in January 2025, Palmer has played only 158 minutes for England across three appearances. Injuries and poor form have limited his chances, while others have moved ahead by making the most of their own opportunities.<\/p>\n
Palmer has already worked his way back into Tuchel\u2019s thinking once this month, and could do so again by maintaining his goals and assists for Chelsea. For now, however, the bar appears higher after another international window away from England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palmer\u2019s England setback may disappoint him, but Chelsea can benefit from his extra rest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[59,242,180],"class_list":["post-20037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-featured","tag-injury","tag-player-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}