Chelsea: Cole Palmer injury revealed by Enzo Maresca after surprise setback | OneFootball

Chelsea star suffered setback minutes before kicking off against West Ham

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Enzo Maresca revealed Cole Palmer played through a groin injury against Crystal Palace and will be assessed after missing Chelsea's 5-1 win over West Ham.

Maresca confirmed soon after that Palmer was withdrawn from the game as a precaution, and then revealed after full-time that the player has been carrying a knock for a number of games.

"Cole, in the last four or five days, was not 100%. Today, he tried to warm up, but he felt something,” Maresca told reporters.

So, we prefer not to take any risk to get worse, and we'll see now in the next hours if it's something important or not.

"Probably (for the) Palace game he was not 100%.

“But he is trying to make a big effort for the club, for the team, for the fans. Because he is really keen about the team. Tonight, again, he tried again. But it was not very good.”

Chelsea didn't seem to miss Palamer's presence as they put five goals past West Ham, with five different players getting on the scoresheet, and Maresca dismissed talk of the Blues being overly reliant on the Englishman.

He continued: "The ones that they say that we are just a Cole team, for sure, Cole is our best player, no doubt. For sure, with Cole, we are a much, much, much better team. But I think we already showed last year, in two, three months, where Cole, unfortunately for us, was not 100%, we achieved top four.

“When we achieved top four, no one expected (it). And the most important thing, no one asked me in the first season to finish top four in the Champions League. They asked me in two years' Champions League."

Chelsea reacted superbly to their draw with Crystal Palace last weekend, scoring five without reply at the London Stadium after Lucas Paqueta had given West Ham an early lead.

Goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez put Chelsea 3-1 up before half-time, with Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah adding to the scoreline after the break to put the Blues top of the Premier League for the first time since December 2021.