Maresca on Palmer featuring tomorrow night after new injury scare from fans

Enzo Maresca has just taken his press conference ahead of tomorrow night’s EFL Cup game against Cardiff, and he had some interesting things to say about Cole Palmer.

The attacking midfielder missed a couple of months of the season to let a chronic groin problem heal, and has now had two starts since his return. He scored on Saturday against Everton but still didn’t look 100%. Some fans said they saw him limping a little before he was taken off early in the second half.

Maresca confirms Palmer out for tomorrow

Cole Palmer and Enzo Maresca during a warmup.

But we didn’t get any new reports of an injury from Maresca, who did confirm that the attacker wouldn’t be playing tomorrow night as he continues to build up to full fitness:

“I already said many times, Cole is one of the players that deserves to be protected. He is not available to play two games in three days.”

In pervious rounds we saw Facundo Buonanotte play, but there are a number of ways that Maresca could set things up. With Liam Delap out we could see a false 9, or a new formation entirely. This is our last chance to rest players before a busy Christmas period, but we really don’t want to slip up here, and the coach has got a lot of flak for his rotation in recent weeks. It will be very interesting to see who he picks.

In other news…

The main story in the presser was about Maresca himself after his comments at the weekend. He took the chance to point to his good cup record since joining Chelsea, and that’s no coincidence.

Maresca had to fend off questions about his Chelsea future in the same press conference, insisting on his commitment despite the rift that seems to be opening. He knows that all he can do now is win some games and lift the mood again.