Cole Palmer\u2019s return to the scoresheet against Everton brought relief but little celebration. The Chelsea forward ended a 333-day scoring drought, yet he was quick to stress that the performance did not mean he is fully fit.<\/p>\n
Palmer has been managing a muscular problem that forced him to miss Chelsea\u2019s final two games of August after an early comeback proved premature. He then spent two-and-a-half months on the sidelines and suffered a fractured toe during that period. Those setbacks have left him short of match sharpness and reliant on careful treatment from the club\u2019s medical staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I\u2019m at my best yet. I\u2019m still dealing with an injury,\u201d he told BBC\u2019s Match of the Day this weekend. \u201cHopefully, it gets better and better but there\u2019s still a bit to go.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is getting better. The stuff I\u2019ve been doing with the physios at the club. It\u2019s just a matter of not doing too much too soon. Literally, it\u2019s just a day-by-day thing. Hopefully it gets better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Maresca underlined a cautious approach. When BBC\u2019s interviewer began asking about Palmer featuring in multiple fixtures in a week, the Italian manager interjected: \u201cAt this moment, he can\u2019t play.\u201d On the specific question of Tuesday\u2019s Carabao Cup quarter-final against Cardiff City, Maresca admitted the forward would \u201cprobably not\u201d be risked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said many times with Cole we are a better team,\u201d Maresca added. \u201cUnfortunately he was out for many games for us, but now he\u2019s back and for sure he will help us.\u201d<\/p>\n
The player\u2019s international prospects were also mentioned after England manager Thomas Tuchel attended the game at Stamford Bridge. It remains to be seen whether he will be called up this summer after Tuchel had only one camp with Palmer in 2025. Palmer downplayed the speculation, saying: \u201cI\u2019ve not been looking too far ahead to be honest,\u201d and, \u201cI\u2019ve been injured for three months, I just need to get back to full fitness. I know what I can offer when I\u2019m fully fit so hopefully I get there soon.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Palmer ended a 333-day scoring drought but says he is still managing injury day by day, Maresca cautious<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1067,190,969],"tags":[1066,319],"class_list":["post-5085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carabao-cup","category-chelsea","category-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-cole-palmer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085","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=5085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}