News of Cole Palmer’s freak toe fracture was communicated to Enzo Maresca in the form of an 11pm text from the club doctor, the Chelsea head coach has revealed.
Maresca has also revealed that the plan was for Palmer to return to training on Thursday but that was put on hold when the Englishman had an accident at his home the day before.
Palmer was on his way back from his reoccurring groin injury and Chelsea had one eye on the Barcelona game next Tuesday and the other on next Sunday’s league game against Arsenal as they plotted his return to match action following two months out.
But the Englishman suffered a freak setback on Wednesday when he stubbed his little toe on a door at his home and suffered a fracture, with Maresca ruling him out of Saturday’s trip to Burnley as well as both the Barcelona and Arsenal games.
“It was 11pm at night,” Maresca said when asked how he was told of Palmer’s fresh injury.
“When you receive a message from the doctor at 11pm at night, it's always bad news,” the 45-year-old added.
“I saw my mobile, it was the doctor, and he just said, ‘Cole has had an accident at home’.
“I was next to my wife. I said: ‘Oh my god!’ My wife was saying: ‘What's happened? What’s happened?’ It was like this. I’m not joking, I’m serious!”
Maresca was asked whether, once recovered from the toe fracture, Palmer is going to have to continue managing the groin injury throughout the season.
“Hopefully not,” he said. “But I don’t know. I’m not going to say yes or no; I don’t know.
“The plan for Cole was to take part in a session on Thursday. He was ready. Unfortunately, the day before, the accident happened.”
Meanwhile, Maresca expects midfielder Romeo Lavia to be out for a month or longer with the quad injury he sustained early in Chelsea’s 2-2 draw away to Qarabag in the Champions League on November 5.
“Romeo now needs to be just focus on recovery,” the Blues’ head coach explained. “I think he will be at least one month out then we see.
“I had a chat with Romeo yesterday [on Thursday], that we need to continue to insist, because in the end we will find the right solution for him. Unfortunately, he’s out again.”
In better news, Maresca confirmed that Enzo Fernandez and Pedro Neto were fit after injury.
