Chelsea have been given a blow to their attacking options after club figures concluded that Cole Palmer will not be available to return from his groin problem until November. Maresca has always refused to put an exact timeline on when Palmer might return to action, but did say in late September that he hoped to see him back in action immediately after the October international break. The Athletic are one of a number of publishers to state that a meeting at Chelsea has concluded that Palmer will not be fit enough to return until November.<\/p>\n
That delay means the attacking midfielder, regarded as one of the best in his position, will miss Premier League games against Nottingham Forest and Sunderland, a trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup fourth round, and a clash with Dutch giants Ajax in the Champions League. Palmer\u2019s absence further strains a squad already managing multiple absences.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s defensive problems remain acute. Levi Colwill is a long-term absentee after tearing an ACL, while Tosin Adarabioyo and Wesley Fofana were ruled out of last weekend\u2019s thrilling late win over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge. Replacements Beno\u00eet Badiashile and Josh Acheampong were unable to play the full 90 minutes against Arne Slot\u2019s Premier League champions. Reece James withdrew from international duty with England after reporting to camp with an injury; his latest issue, thankfully, doesn\u2019t appear to be too serious.<\/p>\n
Striker Liam Delap, signed in the summer from Ipswich Town, has also been ruled out through injury. He was joined on the sidelines for the game against Liverpool by Palmer and Jo\u00e3o Pedro because of suspension. Palmer remains the central concern for supporters and staff as they monitor his recovery and assess their options ahead of key fixtures.<\/p>\n
There is particular focus on whether Palmer will be fit to face rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Nov. 1. He has a strong record in that fixture, winning all four meetings, and has contributed three goals and two assists, including a brace in the 4\u20133 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cole Palmer set to be out until November, deepening Chelsea injury concerns before Spurs clash. Nov.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,969],"tags":[1047,1089,319],"class_list":["post-3668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-champions-league","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668","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=3668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}