Chelsea are assessing a groin injury which kept Cole Palmer out of the win at West Ham.
Blues head coach Enzo Maresca revealed after the 5-1 victory that Palmer has been struggling with the problem for some time – and played despite the injury against Crystal Palace last weekend.
Palmer was named in the starting line-up at the London Stadium but was withdrawn from the side after the warm-up.
“Cole in the last four or five days was not 100%,” Maresca explained.
“The Palace game, he was not 100%. But he is trying to make a big effort for the club, for the team, for the fans. Tonight again he tried again, but it was not very good.
“Today he tried the warm-up, but he felt something. So we prefer not to take any risk to get worse. We’ll see in the next hours if it’s something important or not.”
Chelsea stormed to an emphatic derby win despite being without their talisman.
It was the perfect response to those who have suggested they are overly reliant on Palmer.
“I don’t care about that,” Maresca insisted.
“People, in general, they are there to say something. The ones that say we are just a Cole team, for sure, Cole is our best player, no doubt. For sure, when we have Cole, we are a much, much, much better team.
“But I think we already showed last year, in two or three months where Cole, unfortunately for us, was not 100%, when we achieved top four.”
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