Cole Palmer injury: Enzo Maresca reveals new update after latest Chelsea blow

England forward has been nursing a groin issue all season and was taken off early against Manchester United

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Enzo Maresca has revealed a new update on Cole Palmer as the Chelsea star’s injury problems continue.

Palmer was substituted after just 21 minutes of Chelsea’s 2-1 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday as his persistent groin injury flared up again .

The England forward was starting a match for just the second time this season, having missed the wins over West Ham and Fulham and only appeared from the bench in last weekend’s draw with Brentford.

But Palmer was again hampered by pain and had to be quickly replaced by Andrey Santos as Chelsea became the first Premier League team in history to make three substitutions by the 21st minute — the first two having immediately followed Robert Sanchez’s fifth-minute red card as Estevao and Pedro Neto made way for Filip Jorgensen and Tosin Adarabioyo.

Palmer’s groin injury is believed to have originated in the short period of pre-season training that took place between the end of the Club World Cup and start of the Premier League campaign.

Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca said after the United defeat : “He [Palmer] did this morning [Saturday] a test. He wanted to play this game for the team, so the effort has been huge from him.

“But then after 20 minutes he started to feel something, so we decided to change him.”

Chelsea are expected to be much-changed when Maresca selects his lineup for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup third-round match against League One side Lincoln.

Providing a new update on Palmer’s situation at a press conference on Monday morning, Maresca said: “Cole probably is the only one that we need to assess a little bit.

“He already did a huge effort last Saturday. He was not 100 per cent. He wants to be there to help the team. It’s day by day to see how he is. The rest are okay.”

Maresca allayed fears that Palmer may yet need groin surgery to repair the lingering issue, adding: “The medical staff didn’t mention to me about surgery until today. I don’t know about the next weeks, but I don’t think so to be honest.”