Enzo Maresca confirmed both Liam Delap and Cole Palmer will miss Chelsea\u2019s Champions League trip to Atalanta, but offered measured updates on the pair ahead of Tuesday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Maresca said the initial worry over Delap proved less severe than feared. \u201cYeah, Liam fortunately is not any fracture, so that is good news,\u201d he told his pre-match press conference. \u201cNow for how long he will be out, not sure to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
UEFA rules required part of Monday\u2019s training to be open to the media, and those present noticed Palmer was not involved. The midfielder has already missed 16 games across all competitions this season, increasing scrutiny over his fitness and availability. Maresca stressed the decision to leave Palmer out was deliberate and part of a managed return. \u201cCole is part of his process in this moment, he\u2019s not available, he can\u2019t play two games in a row in three days,\u201d Maresca stressed. \u201cSo we\u2019ve planned that and it\u2019s just a way to protect him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delap\u2019s earlier absence this season prompted Chelsea to recall Marc Guiu from his loan at Sunderland after failing to block Nicolas Jackson\u2019s temporary switch to Bayern Munich. With Delap sidelined again, discussion has turned to potential reinforcements. Emmanuel Emegha, the Dutch international who has agreed to join Chelsea from Strasbourg at the end of the season, has been the subject of speculation that his move could be brought forward to January. The Telegraph, however, report there are no plans to bring Emegha to Stamford Bridge before next summer.<\/p>\n
Chelsea\u2019s attacking options appear to remain sufficient despite Delap\u2019s absence. Marc Guiu and Jo\u00e3o Pedro are available alternatives up front, while Maresca has previously deployed Tyrique George and Pedro Neto in more advanced roles when required. The manager\u2019s updates offer cautious reassurance as Chelsea prepare for their trip to Atalanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Maresca says Delap has no fracture; Palmer is being managed and will miss the Atalanta trip in UCL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4980,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190],"tags":[1047,319],"class_list":["post-4981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","tag-champions-league","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981","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=4981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}