Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca has said that Liam Delap did not break his shoulder badly, but he will still have to sit out for a while after being subbed out on the weekend. The Italian head coach also said that Cole Palmer won’t be going with the team to the Champions League match against Atalanta on Tuesday.
During the first half of the scoreless draw with Bournemouth on Saturday, Delap had to leave the game because he was in so much pain in his shoulder. At first, there were worries that the summer signing had dislocated or broken something, which could keep him out for months. This would have been a massive blow to the Blues’ attacking options.
However, scans have given us a more hopeful picture, suggesting he will be able to recover within weeks rather than months. Unfortunately, he will miss the trip to Italy.
Maresca gave the medical update on his striker at a press conference before the game in Italy. He was relieved that the damage wasn’t as bad as it first looked:
“Yeah, Liam fortunately is not any fracture, so that is good news.”
Delap could have missed up to two months if his clavicle or arm had broken, but the diagnosis says he could be back much sooner. Maresca said he wasn’t sure how long it would take, but he did say that the forward would still be unavailable for the time being.
Palmer, on the other hand, was a notable no-show at training on Monday before the team flew to Bergamo. The club’s medical staff is taking good care of the England international, who just came back from his own injury layoff.
He isn’t going to play in the European game on purpose so that he doesn’t get too tired, especially since the games are so close together. The Chelsea manager made it clear that there was no new injury problem with Palmer. Instead, the choice was only about managing the load for a key player:
“Cole is part of his process in this moment, he’s not available, he can’t play two games in a row in three days. So we’ve planned that and it’s just a way to protect him.”
Enzo Maresca talks about facing Atalanta
Maresca is very proud to be going back to his home country to play against a team he really admires. The trip to Bergamo is a big deal for him, and he praised their tactical evolution, saying that it has made Italian football more modern:
“I think Serie A changed a lot, from different points of view. The main one probably is in terms of tactical, now many teams they try to, not to copy, but they try to do something similar, what Atalanta has done in the last years with Gasperini.”
He told his players to be ready for a tough physical battle against the current Europa League champions. He said:
“There are always risks, Atalanta are a very aggressive team who play a particular type of football, we’ll try to do our best to get the win.”