Sidelined: Cole Palmer missed Chelsea’s Premier League clash with Arsenal due to injury
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Chelsea forward Cole Palmer will play no part for England during the current international break, Thomas Tuchel has confirmed.
The Blues star was part of new Three Lions boss Tuchel’s first 26-man squad named last week for upcoming opening 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley.
However, Palmer had already been struggling with illness and was later left out of the Chelsea squad entirely for their 1-0 Premier League defeat by London rivals Arsenal on Sunday due to a muscular injury suffered in training on the eve of the game.
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca admitted that he did not expect the 22-year-old to link up with England, revealing that an initial scan had been planned for Monday and believing that he would benefit from “rest physically and mentally” having now gone 10 games without scoring across all competitions since January - comfortably the worst run of his otherwise impressive Stamford Bridge career to date.
Tuchel called up Nottingham Forest midfielder Morgan Gibbs-White on Sunday night amid the lingering doubts over Palmer, whom it was finally confirmed on Tuesday would remain at Chelsea for further injury assessment. Under-21s trio Taylor Harwood-Bellis, Adam Wharton and Liam Delap have also spent time training with the England senior team this week.
Palmer was ruled out of Friday night’s visit of Albania to Wembley and Tuchel has also confirmed that he will not return to the squad ahead of the next home qualifier against Latvia on Monday night.
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“Cole will not be with us,” Tuchel said at his pre-Albania press conference on Thursday. “We waited a while for feedback. But he is not on the pitch and it makes no sense to call him up now.”
Chelsea will hope that Palmer is back fit after the international break, with further London derbies against Tottenham and Brentford coming up in the Premier League ahead of their two-legged Conference League quarter-final tie against Polish side Legia Warsaw.
Reports from The Guardian on Wednesday said that the former Manchester City man had been sent for a second scan on the issue, but with Chelsea still optimistic over a swift return to the pitch.
Maresca remains short on attacking options with Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke and Marc Guiu all still sidelined and Mykhailo Mudryk unavailable for selection. Summer signing Omari Kellyman revealed earlier this week that his season was over after sustaining another hamstring injury.
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