Chelsea’s fittest player is not Moises Caicedo according to reports from training camp | OneFootball

Kieran Gill’s latest Chelsea Confidential column is all about the Blues’ trip to the Club World Cup, where they will take on some of the biggest teams in the world, starting tonight against LAFC.

Enzo Maresca is expected to play his strongest lineup, despite the long and gruelling season which has just finished. The £100m prize money on the line is just too great to ignore.

Players like Cole Palmer will feature despite having bounced straight from a 9 month Premier League and Conference League campaign into international duty with England.

Cole Palmer may be Chelsea’s fittest player

Cole Palmer with his boots off. (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

If anyone can handle it, however, Palmer can. Gill notes in his piece that the attacking midfielder is actually maybe the fittest player in the squad, contrary to what one might expect given his relaxed demeanour on and off the pitch:

“The smart money is on Palmer winning any races to the top [of the famous Rocky Steps in Philadelphia], as we are told he has revealed himself as the one to beat in Chelsea’s internal fitness tests in spite his on-field nonchalance. Maresca’s fitness coach Marcos Alvarez may have something to say if anyone admits in earshot that they fancy trying a Philly cheesesteak, mind.”

This lines up with what we heard from Romeo Lavia in some promo work for the club’s social channels done earlier in the week, where he claimed Palmer was the “most likely to run a marathon.”

England players exhausted after long season

Gill adds that the many England players taking part in the Club World Cup, including 4 from Chelsea, agreed that they “felt exhausted after a long season” and were concerned that FIFA were running them into the ground and not showing a “duty of care.”

They’re not wrong. Still, £100m is £100m…