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Enzo Maresca has revealed Cole Palmer agrees with Chelsea's decision to rest him over the next week as he looks to return to full fitness.
The 23-year-old has been struggling with a groin injury since the start of the season. In the week building up to the second match of the campaign, the 5-1 victory at West Ham United, Palmer suffered a knock to his groin.
He was due to start against the Hammers but felt more pain during the warm-up, and Estevao Willian took his place in the XI. Palmer then missed the win against Fulham before the two-week international break, before returning away at Brentford in the returning game.
The England international came on for a second-half cameo at the Bees and then completed the full 90 minutes in the defeat away at Bayern Munich. Palmer, though, was not fully comfortable following the match and had a late fitness test on the day of the defeat to Manchester United.
Desperate to play, Palmer told the club's medical staff he would give it a go at Old Trafford, but said go lasted just 20 minutes before he limped off. It came as no surprise that Palmer missed the trip to Lincoln City in the week.
Palmer will now miss Saturday afternoon’s home clash with Brighton, in the fixture he scored four first-half goals in last season, as well as games against Benfica and Liverpool before the next international break. Maresca, though, believes this will benefit his star attacker in the long run.
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"The main thing from Cole is that he’s always trying to make an effort to play," said Maresca on Friday morning. "He did against West Ham, against Manchester United and it was painful.
"He was a bit better but it’s a problem where one day you are better, one day you are worse, so the medical staff decided the best thing for him was to try and give him weeks off for recovery. Cole was completely convinced that he needs that."
Elsewhere, Chelsea will be without defensive duo Tosin Adarabioyo and Wesley Fofana for the visit of Brighton. Tosin is struggling with a calf problem and is unlikely to feature before the international break next month, while Fofana is absent for the next week as well following a collision with goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen at Lincoln. The Frenchman has to skip 12 days after the Carabao Cup third round win due to concussion protocols.
There is hope that Benoit Badiashile and Romeo Lavia will return to the Chelsea squad for their clash with the Seagulls. Both Badiashile and Lavia are yet to feature this season due to muscular problems and if they do not make the squad for Brighton, then they will for the Champions League clash with Benfica.
Providing those two are indeed fit, then Chelsea will be missing seven players for absolute definite against Brighton. Palmer, Tosin and Fofana, as mentioned, are all absent, while Facundo Buonanotte cannot feature against his parent club.
Liam Delap remains sidelined due to a hamstring problem, while Dario Essugo and Levi Colwill are long-term absentees as well.
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