Cole Palmer was not completely healthy before beginning Saturday’s loss to Manchester United, according to Enzo Maresca, who also commended the England attacker for making the “effort” to be available at Old Trafford. Palmer was replaced after just twenty minutes, with Chelsea already behind by one goal following Bruno Fernandes’ first strike and one man due to Robert Sánchez’s red card.
In the end, Ruben Amorim’s squad prevailed 2-1, and Maresca later acknowledged that he had gambled on Palmer’s fitness. “Cole, he trained this morning; he had a test this morning to play this game,” Maresca remarked. “He wasn’t quite fit. He tried so hard to play this game, but he wasn’t perfect.
Palmer reappeared before the first half ended, sporting an ice pack on the top of his thigh, and went right into the tunnel after being replaced. After a groin injury, the 23-year-old has just made a full recovery. It was his first start since the first weekend of the season in Wednesday’s Champions League 3-1 loss to Bayern Munich.
Enzo Maresca has confirmed Cole Palmer was not 100%
“Cole, he tried this morning; he had a test this morning to play this game,” Maresca told reporters following the game. Although he put in a great effort to play this game, he was not quite fit.
“Yeah, it’s a problem that it’s been a long time for him; he’s growing,” he continued. He took a test this morning and put in a lot of effort because he wanted to play this game for the squad and be near. However, after 20 minutes, he began to feel uneasy, so we changed him.”
Maresca gave an explanation for his early Sunday changes, saying, “We changed Pedro [Neto] and Estevao [Willian] because they always attack with five players, and we defend with the four. We can defend with the four when we are 11 vs. 11, but 11 against ten, I think we need to defend on the width, so we decided to go with the back five. This is the reason why.”
