Enzo Maresca provides update on Cole Palmer’s injury – and praises Chelsea players after beating West Ham | OneFootball

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca says Cole Palmer had already been struggling with a groin injury in the build up to the game against West Ham.

Palmer was forced to withdraw from the Blues starting line-up before kick-off, and was replaced by Estevao.

But Chelsea coped without their talisman, thrashing West Ham 5-1 at the London Stadium thanks to goals from Joao Pedro, Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez, Moises Caicedo and Trevoh Chalonah.

On Palmer’s injury, Maresca said: “Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%.

“Today he tried the warm-up, but he felt something. So we prefer not to take any risk to get worse. And we’ll see in the next hours if it’s something important or not.

“The Palace game, he was not 100%. But he is trying to make a big effort for the club, for the team, for the fans. Tonight again he tried again, but it was not very good.”

On whether the win over West Ham proved Chelsea are not completely reliant on Palmer, Maresca responded: “You know already how I feel, that I don’t care about.

“You are there to say things and people, in general, they are there to say something. The ones that they say that we are just a Cole team, for sure, Cole is our best player, no doubt. For sure, when we have Cole, we are a much, much, much better team.

“But I think we already showed last year, in two or three months, where Cole, unfortunately for us, was not 100%. When we achieved top four, that no-one expected. And the most important thing, no-one asked me in the first season to finish top four in the Champions League. They asked me in two years (to finish) in the Champions League.”