Opponent watch: Chelsea optimistic about star player returning in time to face Barcelona | OneFootball

The restart of club football after the international break brings Barcelona manager Hansi Flick everything he could have asked for, in a sporting and psychological sense.

The reopening of the Spotify Camp Nou in itself is a massive boost to the players, who will look to use it to push themselves harder this season. 

More importantly, however, Raphinha and Joan Garcia will be back against Athletic Club while Pedri is expected to return in the game against Chelsea.

Cole Palmer to return?

Having dropped points against Club Brugge in their last UCL game, Barcelona are now in a must-win situation against Chelsea to keep their hopes of a top-8 finish alive. The injury returnees, thus, could not have come at a better time.

As related by SPORT, however, Chelsea too are counting on a massive player to return from injury against Barcelona – one who Enzo Maresca sees as the team’s single-most important name.

Chelsea hopeful of having Cole Palmer back. (Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

Indeed, the name in question is Cole Palmer, the English international who has struggled with groin discomfort for a while now and missed Chelsea’s games since late September when he featured against Manchester United.

Palmer was initially expected to certainly miss the Barcelona clash and possibly only return to take on Arsenal at the end of the month.

Now, however, the close circle of the London-based side are said to be optimistic that he can feature against Flick’s side next week.

The 23-year-old is indeed far from being match-fit, but the manager has no doubts that he will return directly to the starting lineup if he is cleared, given that his presence completely transforms the team’s fluidity and potential.

Starting him will be a risk, but one that Maresca sees as having a greater possibility of ending well than otherwise.