Cole Palmer is placed on rest! Enzo Maresca tells Chelsea talisman to sit out games until after international break due to injury concerns

During Chelsea's farcical 2-1 defeat to Manchester United, the England international was substituted after just 20 minutes, with his side already down to 10 men after the sending off of goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in the first five minutes of the encounter. Palmer appeared particularly aggrieved to be taken off, and headed straight down the tunnel, but it was soon revealed that the playmaker had suffered a recurrence of a persistent groin injury. He also missed clashes against West Ham and Fulham due to the ongoing issue, and surgery has been discussed as a potential solution, although his manager has now appeared to soften his stance on that prospect. 

Manager Maresca has confirmed that he has advised Palmer to rest, but stopped short of saying that the Englishman needs to go under the knife. Instead, he faces missing two Premier League games and one Champions League clash; it is, at this point, unclear if Thomas Tuchel will include him in his Three Lions squad. England play Wales in a friendly on October 9 before travelling to Latvia for a World Cup qualifier on October 14. 

Maresca said, per Ben Jacobs: “We decided to protect a Cole a little bit [to] not let his injury get worse. We decided to rest him for two-three weeks until the international break to see if he can recover 100%. I don’t think he needs surgery. It’s just a matter of managing the pain in his groin.”

While Palmer has developed into one of the best attacking midfield players in the world at Stamford Bridge, and also on the international stage with England, Palmer has struggled for form since the turn of the year. In the first half of the 2024/25 season, up until New Year's Day, Palmer scored 12 league goals and registered six assists. Since ringing in 2025, he has managed just four goals and three assists, and now faces a prolonged period on the sidelines. During his time at Stamford Bridge, he has missed a total of seven Blues games but that number is now set to rise to at least ten. Maresca will hope that he can put the problem behind him as quickly as possible. 

The injury comes at a galling time for Palmer, having hailed the club's ability to go "toe-to-toe" with the best in the world after their narrow Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich. 

He said: "The manager said to us before that he knows we can go toe-to-toe with anyone, and I think we showed that tonight despite the result.

"It’s a good learning curve for tonight and to be back in the competition is nice, so we just need to kick off from here.

"We’re not in this competition for it to be a learning curve for us. I feel like we showed tonight that we can compete and we want to do as best as we can."

Palmer has now brought up a century of appearances for the Blues following his move from Manchester City back in 2023; he has a 10-year contract until 2033, so there is plenty of time for him to get back on the pitch and continue impacting games for the west London giants. 

The Blues talisman will hope to recover quickly as Chelsea look to build on what has been a solid, if unspectacular, start to their Premier League campaign. They have won two, drawn two, and lost one of their opening five games, with the defeat coming at a sodden Old Trafford as Palmer's injury flared up. They will hope to get back to winning ways against Brighton but will have to do so without one of their most important creators. Palmer will hope to return on October 18, when the Blues face Nottingham Forest in the league, days before meeting Ajax in the Champions League.