Enzo Maresca has revealed Cole Palmer is a doubt. (Image: Sky Sports)
boss has admitted is a huge doubt for his side’s clash with on Monday. The forward produced another sublime finish on Tuesday night, his 14th goal of the season.
The England international has featured in all 21 of his club’s top-flight matches in the 2024/25 campaign, but in his pre-match press conference Maresca confirmed the star missed training this morning.
“Cole is a doubt, he was not in the session today,” said the Italian boss.
And Maresca also said he could not be sure if Palmer would be able to undertake a session before Monday, adding: “Cole didn’t train today, we don’t know if he will train in the two days.
“We rely on Cole because he’s a big player. We prefer to play with Cole but in case he has an injury or a problem, then we will find a solution.”
And Palmer was one of four players who couldn’t take part at the Cobham training centre. Three other squad members could also be ruled out with Maresca facing a mini-injury crisis as his side look to end a run of five league matches without a win.
Palmer scored against Bournemouth on Tuesday. (Image: Getty)
“Levi (Colwill) was not in the session, Romeo (Lavia) and Enzo (Fernandez) were not involved,” he continued, before giving an update on Reece James following his cameo on Tuesday: “For Reece, it’s not about if he scores goals, or how many minutes; it’s about to manage his situation.
“For sure, if he plays 45 minutes it means he can be ready. But we don’t want an injury again. We are trying to help him and we will do the same in this moment.”
Maresca will have defender Trevor Chalobah available after opting to recall him from his loan spell at . And he explained the decision was a straightforward one given Benoit Badiashile and Wesley Fofana are both currently ruled out.
“Quite (an) easy process in terms of we have a few injuries and we were looking for a solution,” he explained. “The best solution was to call back Trev because we know him and we know he can help us.”
have now slipped to fourth in the table, just two points clear of . And when asked how he was finding January, Maresca jokingly answered “a disaster” before conceding his side needed to improve their current form.