Every word Enzo Maresca said on Cole Palmer setback, Chelsea injury news, Nottingham Forest

The full transcript from Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca's pre-match press conference ahead of the Blues' Premier League clash away at Nottingham Forest this weekend

Enzo Maresca has just completed his pre-match press conference ahead of Chelsea's Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest.

The Blues travel to the City Ground this weekend with club football returning after the second international break of the season. Maresca fielded a whole host of questions on Friday morning as his players prepared for their final training session before this weekend's game. Below is a full transcript from the Chelsea head coach:

You said Cole Palmer will be back for the international break. Is he ready to return?

I was wrong. Unfortunately he needs to be out probably six more weeks.

When I spoke to you a few weeks ago you said he wouldn't require any sort of surgery, is that still the case?

Yes, absolutely. We try just to protect Cole as much as we can and the most important thing is that.

Are you confident you can get to the bottom of what the problem is with this extra rest?

Yeah, but unfortunately the medical staff, they are not magicians, they never know that you probably need six weeks. We hope that six weeks, they are enough, but it's a problem that we need to see step by step, week after week, but for sure he's going to be okay.

And how is he? He must be frustrated...

No, he looks very good, to be honest, he looks relaxed. He's trying to recover from the injury, he's doing all the therapy that he needs to do, so he looks good.

And who else is out, who else is in?

Yeah, we have Levi [Colwill] and Liam [Delap], they are still out. Unfortunately, Benoit [Badiashile] will be out in December, injury again.

What injury?

A muscle problem. He was doing fantastic, he showed all of this, he showed how he needed, and we're going to wait for him. And then we have Moi [Caicedo], Enzo [Fernandez], Pedro [Neto], they didn't take part in the session yesterday, and we'll see if they can train today, otherwise they're going to be out.

Reece James fit?

Reece is fully recovered.

How big of a moment was the Liverpool win and can you talk us through your red card?

It was a big moment for many reasons. The first reason is because since I joined the club, we never won a game at home in the last minute, so that was one of the reasons. The other reason is because we were playing against, in this moment, the champion of England, they won the last Premier League, so it was an important moment, for sure. For me personally it was just a reaction, just a patient moment, just a normal reaction.

And obviously you didn't get sent off, but I bet you'd do it again, wouldn't you?

Again, it was a nice moment. The last season I was playing for one game for the accumulation of yellow cards. Again, the last yellow card was against Fulham away, where we won a game in the last minute. So I think it's part of our job, the moment, the passion, the reaction, and I think it's also nice for everyone, for the fans, for the stadium, it was just a reaction.

I want to talk about how Forest have conceded more than half of their goals after the 70th minute. Do stats like that when you come up against a team you've had a lot of time to prepare for and you've had to come into consideration when you're thinking about your game plan, and how far ahead do you think about substitutes, or is that always really in the air?

When we analyse a team, we try to consider everything, but also you have to go by match and understand why they concede a goal, in which moment, it's always different. For sure, with the international break, we watch all the games with Angie in charge, and in terms of making changes, I think it's something that sometimes you plan, but also depends on how is the game, you can do more changes or less, I think especially now with the amount of games that we have from now on, we need to think about change, not only during the game, but also in terms of starting level.

How do you think Chelsea can improve from defending and attacking set-pieces?

Since I joined the club, Bernardo [Cueva, set-piece coach] is the one that is in charge of the set-pieces, and since last season until today we didn't change nothing, we are working the same way, we spend time about set-pieces like a normal club, but it's something that as you said, you can score, you can concede, it depends a little bit, but for sure I think overall, between the goal we score and the goal we concede, we are doing quite well.

Do you think your team can be a little bit more risky with their progressive passes? Obviously Levi, he did it from centre-back a lot, but are there more players that can take that responsibility in taking that risk?

For sure, we lost two players in this moment, that for us, last season they have been main players in terms of build-up, when we talk about build-up we talk about breaking lines, Levi for us was the main one from behind, Cole was the main one in the middle of the pitch, but I think we are trying to find different solutions with the players that we are in this moment, we have available.

Who do you think can step up in Cole Palmer's absence, who can replace him, how do you replace those goals and assists that he provides?

First of all, to replace Cole is difficult, because Cole is a very important player for us, probably one of the best players in the Premier League, so to replace that kind of player is always difficult, but I think the ones that we have, it depends on the game plan, Cole's position against Liverpool was Malo Gusto, the previous game against Benfica I think it was Facundo [Buonanotte], it depends a little bit on the game plan we have, for sure we need to find a different solution, we need to find different skills, because we don't have another player like Cole, because Cole is unique.

Was the international break positive or negative for you?

No, it's a good one, because Tosin is back, [Wesley] Fofana is back, Andrey Santos is back, but at the same time we are unfortunately Enzo is out, Moi is out, Pedro is out, it's a little bit of a balance, but again, we're going to try our best to find the right solution for the next games.