Chelsea have been handed a double-injury blow as they prepare to return to Premier League action
Cole Palmer has been ruled out of Sunderland's trip to Stamford Bridge next weekend.
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca confirmed in a press conference on Friday morning that the England international needs around another six weeks to recover from a groin injury, ruling him out of the next block of Premier League fixtures. Sunderland travel to London to face Maresca's side next weekend after their clash with Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon.
Maresca said: "I was wrong, unfortunately, he needs to be out for probably six more weeks. We try to protect Cole as much as we can and the most important thing is when he comes back he is fully fit.
“Unfortunately, the medical staff are not magicians, you never know that [he will definitely be fine again by then]. He will probably need six weeks, we hope that six weeks is enough. It is a problem we need to see step by step, week after week. But for sure he is going to be okay.”
Maresca also ruled centre half Benoit Badiashile out of Saturday's game.
"Benoit will be out until December,' Maresca said.
"He is injured again with a muscle problem. He was doing fantastic, showing how good he is, and how we need him. So we will wait for him.'
Levi Colwill and Liam Delap are long-term injuries who are expected to miss next weekend's game, with Delap's hamstring injury earlier in the season leading to Marc Guiu's return to the club from his loan at Sunderland. Pedro Neto, Enzo Fernandez and Moises Caicedo all face late fitness tests ahead of Chelsea's game against Nottingham Forest on Saturday lunchtime, but are expected to be fit to face Sunderland next weekend. Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo, and Andrey Santos are all set to return for the Blues tomorrow, while Reece James is also fit despite missing international duty.
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Sunderland injury news ahead of Wolves and Chelsea clashes
Reinildo will serve the third and final game of his suspension against Wolves on Saturday, and will return to face Chelsea next weekend. Sunderland are hopeful that both Noah Sadiki and Omar Alderete will be fit to face Wolves tomorrow, despite picking up injuries while on international duty.
Speaking on Thursday, Régis Le Bris said: “We’re hopeful that both Omar and Noah can start, it’s possible.
“For Noah, we checked him yesterday and he seems OK. We’ll see after the training session today and tomorrow but we are positive. At the minute, he seems OK. He had this injury before so he knows how it can evolve and how serious it can be. At the moment he’s positive. With Omar, after 20 hours flight, we’ll see! We’ll check him this afternoon. We had a quick chat with him and he’s positive. Everyone else appears to be OK.”
Dennis Cirkin, Leo Hjelde, Aji Alese, Romaine Mundle and Habib Diarra are longer-term injury absentees. Cirkin, Hjelde and Mundle should all be able to resume full training some time around or before the November international break.
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