Enzo Maresca on Disasi and Sterling, Palmer’s fitness, Estevao, and Marc Guiu ahead of Man Utd v Chelsea | OneFootball

Enzo Maresca has defended his decision to have Axel Disasi and Raheem Sterling train away from his squad.

Sterling and Disasi have been frozen out of Maresca’s squad and are training separately, with the Professional Footballers’ Association this week approaching the club to discuss their treatment of the duo.

But asked about the difficulty both face, Maresca insists perspective is needed.

“My father is 75-years-old and for 50 years he has been a fisherman, working from 2 o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock in the morning,” he said. “This is hard in life, not a player, the way they work.

“I’ve been in Raheem’s situation and Axel’s situation as a player and for sure I know that it’s not the best feeling for a player because if you are a player that means that you want to train and play a game and then for a different reason, the situation is the situation that is in this moment.

“I know that the club is giving them the opportunity to work in the right way and this is the only thing I can say.

“I know that it’s something that you like and you want to talk about but it’s not just Chelsea, it’s any club in the world, I can promise you.

“Italy, Spain, England, France, USA, Brazil, any club in the world, when for any reason the player and the club doesn’t find any solution and you give the player all the tools to do training sessions and to do everything but if you are not involved in the squad you are not involved in the squad.

“Again, I know that it’s something that you like to talk about but it’s not about Chelsea, it’s about any club in the world.”

In terms of players who could be involved when Chelsea take on Manchester United, however, Maresca says Cole Palmer is “okay” having recently returned from a groin injury.

“Cole is okay,” he said. “We have a session now. We flew back yesterday. So we need to assess some of the players. We have some doubt. But we didn’t do any sessions since Wednesday game. And we’ll see how it goes.”

The Blues boss has also urged patience with youngster Estevao, saying: “Estevao can be great in all the attacking positions because his talent is very good, he is a top player. But at the same time he’s 18-years-old, so he needs time.

Marc Guiu, meanwhile, was left out of the squad altogether for the game against Brentford and did not come off the bench against Bayern Munich. Maresca admits he has some improving to do.

“Marc is back,” he said. “The reason why he’s back is because the intention is to use him. But he needs to do things better, he needs to improve things. And for sure, we’re going to use him.”