Latest: Maresca gives update on Cole Palmer; Badiashile and Lavia fitness for tomorrow discussed | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has just taken his press conference ahead of Chelsea’s game against Liverpool tomorrow afternoon, and it was full of interesting snippets, as you’d expect.

The big question is over the team news. Maresca is dealing with a lot of injuries right now, and that means juggling a lot of players in and out of the lineup to stop them getting fatigued.

There wasn’t much to say today. When asked about the team news Maresca responded that “Cole [Palmer] is still out. We have Trev [Chalobah] suspended. We have seven or eight players out.”

Palmer’s timeline remains a mystery

Cole Palmer holds his groin against Bayern Munich after aggravating his injury.

Pressed for more information on the Palmer issue, Maresca revealed that he couldn’t yet confirm the attacking midfielder’s return yet.

“I don’t have any update at the moment. We have a meeting this week to see how it is.”

We were originally told that the attacking midfielder would be out until after the international break, and it’s still not clear if that means he will be out for a while after that or if

Given it’s a slow burning, chronic sort of groin problem, it’s probably pretty hard to put a timeline on it. The longer we wait, the less chance of aggravating it is. It will all come down to a cost-benefit analysis from Palmer and the medical staff.

Chelsea hope that returning pair can play a role

While there wasn’t any good news to add to the team news, at least there wasn’t anything bad. We can surmise that Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia, having picked up their first minutes back from their injuries last weekend, can be fit to play at least some role tomorrow, with the former likely starting and the latter coming on as a sub.