Cole Palmer’s likely Premier League return date after latest Enzo Maresca update | OneFootball

Cole Palmer’s fitness has been a hot topic in recent press conferences for Enzo Maresca.

The attacking midfield was out for a while with a groin injury, then just as he was about to return he broke his toe in a mystery incident. That was shocking – but so was the announcement last week that he would actually be back in the squad to face Arsenal.

Palmer “available” – but don’t expect a start soon

Andrey Santos comes on for Cole Palmer. (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images)

The latest update from Maresca is that Cole is back – at least for a few minutes.

“He is available. The last game he was on the bench for sure with the players was more complicated for Cole because now he needs to come back in terms of fitness condition,” Maresca said.

“He is available, he can start the game. The idea of the game is to start giving minutes until he can play 90 minutes.”

So what we pick up from that is exactly what we would have expected. Palmer will play just a cameo appearance off the bench on Wednesday, maybe just 15 or 20 minutes.

Then, come the weekend, he will be ready for a more chunky second half showing.

Next week we have Atalanta in midweek, which might be a nice time to start Cole in a slightly less physical environment. He can play the first half there then rest in the second, and potentially be ready to face Everton at the weekend.

So even though Palmer is “available” it is likely going to still be 11 days until we see him start a Premier League game. After more than two months out, we can handle that.

In other news…

Malo Gusto also spoke after the Arsenal game and he was super positive about the way his team had played with ten men, especially considering the standard of their superb opposition.

Joao Pedro noted that Robert Sanchez had had a really good game for the Blues in goal, and had a major hand in the draw (which did feel like a win, in the circumstances).