Manchester United have been backed this summer to sign Cole Palmer from Chelsea, who is now missing from the squad for their pre-season friendly against Juventus
Cole Palmer looking on during a Chelsea training sessions
Manchester United continue to be credited with an interest in Cole Palmer(Image: Getty Images)
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Chelsea are understood to have left Cole Palmer out of the squad for their pre-season friendly against Juventus as a precaution after sustaining a knock.
Palmer, 24, missed their open training session on Tuesday and instead trained individually away from the squad. The former Manchester City player featured in their first two friendlies, both in the Sydney Super Cup, so far this summer.
He came on as a substitute and assisted one of their six goals in Xabi Alonso's first game, a 6-4 win over Western Sydney Wanderers. Palmer then started and played 80 minutes of their 2-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.
However, the England international is a notable absence from the squad for their match in Hong Kong. Our colleagues at football.london understand that the decision is a precautionary measure by the Blues.
The former Chelsea player William Gallas has said this summer that the Wythenshawe-born player will return to Manchester with United one day if he wants to. He told iPredicta: "I don’t think Cole Palmer will go right now, I don't think it's time to go right now.
"He will definitely go to Manchester United in the future if he's a big fan, if he's got a dream to play for Man United, he will definitely go there, but right now I don’t think so. I think he needs to have one more big season as he did two years ago, before he got his injury problem, then he might move."
Andrey Santos only fuelled speculation about his former team-mate joining him at Old Trafford one day by saying after signing: "I got a message from Cole [Palmer].
"He sent a message because he was born here [Manchester], so he knows everything here. He said all the best for you, for your career, you deserve this, a lot of things.
There will be more to follow. We'll bring you the very latest updates on this breaking news story.
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