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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Sport
Dom Smith

Chelsea: Enzo Maresca provides worrying Cole Palmer injury update ahead of Arsenal clash

Chelsea are sweating on the fitness of Cole Palmer ahead of Sunday’s Premier League showdown with Arsenal.

Palmer was left with stud marks on his left knee after a wild late lunge from Lisandro Martinez in last weekend’s 1-1 draw against Manchester United.

And Maresca has revealed that Palmer has not trained this week and was absent again from training on Wednesday.

"Cole is still [out], he didn’t train yesterday,” said Maresca ahead of Thursday’s Europa League clash with Noah.

"We hope so, but we need to wait. We need to see, and then decide."

Asked if playing Palmer against Arsenal would be a risk, Maresca said: “For sure. We said he didn’t train the last two days.

“We’ll see. Hopefully he can be fit. The tackle, it’s quite clear it wasn’t a normal one. Hopefully he can be back.”

Maresca felt Martinez should have been sent off for the challenge on Palmer, who limped out of Old Trafford.

Chelsea have not included Palmer in their Europa Conference League squad, so the 22-year-old will not feature against Armenian side Noah at Stamford Bridge on Thursday

The Blues host Arsenal in a huge Premier League clash on Sunday in their final game before the international break.

Palmer has scored seven goals in 12 appearances for Chelsea this season.

Maresca has revealed Jadon Sancho is still out injured.

Sancho has not featured for Chelsea since he was hooked at half-time in their 2-1 defeat at Liverpool on October 20.

“He’s recovering from that” said Maresca. “He had a knock in the session also. For tomorrow, for sure, he’s out.

“We’ll see if he’s available for Sunday's game. Otherwise it will be after the international break. The rest are all available. Probably we are going to make changes tomorrow.”

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