Cole Palmer a doubt for Brentford trip despite returning to Chelsea training | OneFootball

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has confirmed that a late decision will be made on whether Cole Palmer is fit enough to play against Brentford this weekend.

The Blues are gearing up for Saturday evening’s tricky trip to the Gtech Community Stadium, but Palmer’s fitness is still touch-and-go despite returning to team training.

The 23-year-old missed Chelsea’s back-to-back derby wins against West Ham United and Fulham after picking up an injury during the warm-up at the London Stadium.

He also sat out England duty during the international break and has spent the past two weeks focusing on recovery work at Cobham.

Palmer returned to partial training on Thursday, but Maresca confirmed that his availability will depend on how he responds in Friday’s final session.

“Cole [Palmer] took part in a session yesterday for the first time – but not the entire session,” Maresca said in his pre-match press conference.

“Today in the afternoon, we have one more session, and we are going to try with him and see if he is ok. Otherwise, he will be out tomorrow again.

“He had an injury, but he has recovered from the injury. So it wasn’t about managing him; it was him recovering from the injury.

“From the moment he is available, we have to think about how to manage him a little bit because of the amount of games [we have coming].”

While Chelsea fans will be waiting with bated breath to see if the Blues talisman can mark his return against Brentford, the Blues will have to carry on without summer signing Liam Delap.

The striker suffered a hamstring injury barely a quarter-hour into the 2-0 win against Fulham last time out and is expected to spend up to three months on the sidelines.

Chelsea will be hoping to continue their fine start to the season when they visit Brentford on Saturday.

Their opening-day goalless draw against FA Cup winners Crystal Palace is the only blemish in their unbeaten record at the moment.

However, they’ll need to be wary of a Brentford side looking to bounce back from a 2-1 defeat against Sunderland before the international break.