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Cole Palmer is expected to remain on the sidelines until November, football.london understands, with Chelsea discovering the extent of his persistent groin injury.
The 23-year-old has only managed four appearances in all competitions in what has been an injury-riddled start to the season. Palmer, who played a starring role in the Blues' Club World Cup triumph in the United States over the summer, has missed Chelsea's last four matches after limping off in the defeat at Manchester United.
The England international is now set to miss Premier League matches against Nottingham Forest and Sunderland, as well as the Champions League fixture at home to Ajax and the trip to Wolves in the Carabao Cup fourth round. Multiple sources have told football.london that Palmer's problem is set to keep him out for weeks rather than months.
Enzo Maresca went into a bit of detail to football.london last month when asked about Palmer's injury and the severity of the problem. The Chelsea head coach revealed the problem was complicated and that it could unpredictably get worse on one day and feel a lot better the next.
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"We need to protect Cole, for sure, 100%," Maresca said last month. "Not only Cole in my personal view, because as I said now, because of the Club World Cup or because we never stop. We need to manage and protect different players. For sure Cole is one of them. Another one is Moi [Caicedo].
"Joao Pedro also, since he joined us, he's playing every game. The solution with Cole, I don't know. Now we have a meeting with the medical staff and we decide the best solution for him. But it's also a kind of injury that is not like black and white.
"It's not an injury that someday you can be better. It's not that you are playing and tomorrow you disappear. Sometimes you can be better, sometimes you can be worse. That is why we need to manage day by day."
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