Chelsea have been handed a huge injury boost with Cole Palmer fit for their Premier League showdown with Manchester United.
Palmer has been struggling with a groin injury all season and played through pain on the opening weekend of the season against Crystal Palace before pulling up in the warm-up ahead of the victory over West Ham.
He missed the Fulham win and then did not join up with the England squad, but came off the bench to score on his return in the 2-2 draw at Brentford last weekend.
Palmer was back in the starting lineup against Bayern Munich on Wednesday, scoring once and having another goal disallowed as Chelsea lost 3-1 on their Champions League return.
The 23-year-old completed 90 minutes against Bayern but appeared in pain during the closing stages of the game.
Chelsea face Manchester United on Saturday and, speaking ahead of the trip to Old Trafford, Maresca provided an update on Palmer’s fitness.
“Cole is okay,” he said. “We have a session now, we flew back yesterday [Thursday]. We need to assess some players, we have some doubt. We didn't have a session since Wednesday's game, but we will see.”
Chelsea will hope to have Romeo Lavia and Benoit Badiashile back in action soon for the first time this season after both players were spotted taking part in training ahead of the midweek trip to Munich.
However, striker Liam Delap will miss up to 12 weeks with the hamstring injury he sustained against Fulham last month, while fellow summer signing Dario Essugo recently underwent surgery on a thigh issue suffered while away on international duty with Portugal’s Under-21s.
England defender Levi Colwill, meanwhile, is expected to miss most of the season after injuring his anterior cruciate ligament in training at Cobham in early August. Mykhailo Mudryk also remains unavailable for Chelsea.
