McFarlane on Palmer being left out of England squad and gives injury updates on Chelsea trio | OneFootball

Calum McFarlane revealed that Reece James, Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill both could be fit for Chelsea’s final Premier League match of the season.

The trio missed Chelsea’s 2-1 win over Tottenham three days after they both played in the FA Cup final against Manchester City.

James has only played for Chelsea twice since their loss to Newcastle in March (against Liverpool and in the cup final) because of a hamstring injury, but he was named in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup.

Levi Colwill has only recently come back from a long term knee injury that has kept him out since the beginning of the season.

Joao Pedro is also only recently back from a thigh injury that meant he missed their matches against Manchester United and Brighton.

McFarlane gave an update on their fitness ahead of his last game in charge of Chelsea.

“Reece has trained today,” he said. “We’re playing it day by day with Reece. He’s fit, he’s in good condition. 

“But we just know that we have to manage Reece correctly over the last couple of games. He played, obviously, a lot of minutes in the final which, again, I go back to, it was a tough game against a really good side so, it’s going to take a lot out of you. 

“We didn’t want to risk him on Tuesday, we felt like we had enough to see the game out, which was correct, we’re hoping to have Reece back on Sunday”

“Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill, they both trained today. Still got another day to see, but both promising, both hopeful that they’ll be fit for Sunday.”

Cole Palmer scored in the final last time England played in a major tournament, however, this time he will not be involved as he was not named in their 2026 World Cup squad by Thomas Tuchel. McFarlane was asked whether he has spoken to the midfielder since the decision.

“I’ve spoken loads of times about what I feel and how the club feel about Cole,” McFarlane said. “The England manager’s made a decision in that moment, it’s probably best to speak to him, but we have full belief and trust in Cole.

“We know that he’s a quality player and we’ll be relying on him on Sunday. We haven’t spoken about it. I’m sure he’s not thinking like this at the moment, but again he has got the summer off? 

“I think in life and in football, especially in football, I’ve learned that you need to take every setback as a positive. There’s going to be lots of them.There’s going to be losses. There’s going to be moments like this. If you have the right mindset, you can turn it into a positive.”