\n<\/p>\n
It was difficult to look too far beyond the headline item from Enzo Maresca on Friday morning \u2013 largely because it was to do with Cole Palmer and how the playmaker will miss Chelsea\u2019s next three matches. The club\u2019s medics and Palmer himself (reluctantly, you suspect) have decided that rest is the only cure for the groin issue that has held him back at various points this season.<\/p>\n
Palmer will sit it out against Brighton on Saturday, Benfica and Jos\u00e9 Mourinho on Tuesday and Liverpool next Saturday; all of the matches are at Stamford Bridge. It will then be taken as read that Palmer will not be able to join up with England for the friendly with Wales at Wembley and the World Cup qualifier against Latvia in Riga.<\/p>\n It will be Thomas Tuchel\u2019s fourth camp as the England manager and his third without Palmer because of injury. Which is not ideal in the countdown to the World Cup. The hope at Chelsea is that their main man will be revived by the time they go to Nottingham Forest on 18 October.<\/p>\n And yet, once the Palmer news had been digested, it was actually easy to be assailed by all of the other stuff that is testing Maresca as he reels from a sticky sequence of results and goes into a week that could define the early season for him.<\/p>\n The manager revealed he would be without Tosin Adarabioyo until after the international break because of a calf problem; the centre-half felt it in the wake of last Saturday\u2019s 2-1 loss at Manchester United<\/a>, where he came on after the early dismissal of the goalkeeper Robert S\u00e1nchez.<\/p>\n With that in mind, the last thing Maresca needed was for his back-up goalkeeper, Filip J\u00f6rgensen, to come for a third-minute high ball at Lincoln in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday night and punch Wesley Fofana in the head as they both looked to clear.<\/p>\n Fofana was able to play on and he lasted the 90 minutes as Chelsea won 2-1<\/a>. But he would later present symptoms of concussion and must now observe the relevant protocols, meaning he cannot play for 12 days after the incident. So another central defender will miss Brighton, Benfica and Liverpool.<\/p>\n Levi Colwill is a long-term knee injury absentee and Beno\u00eet Badiashile has not played all season and only just returned to training, making him a doubt for Brighton. Maresca\u2019s options at centre-half could extend no further than Trevoh Chalobah and Josh Acheampong. The latter has been ill this week, re-entering the group for training on Thursday.<\/p>\n It is no exaggeration to say that Maresca has problems throughout the spine of his team \u2013 from back to front. The recklessness of S\u00e1nchez\u2019s red card has been well documented, leading to a one-game ban, which he served against Lincoln.<\/p>\n But if J\u00f6rgensen was not great when he replaced him at Old Trafford, failing to come for the high ball that led to United\u2019s second goal, he endured a horrible evening at Lincoln. There were Chelsea fans who thought his connection with Fofana was the only time he located a spherical object. S\u00e1nchez is poised to return against Brighton, his previous club, with a point to prove.<\/p>\n In midfield, Maresca is without D\u00e1rio Essugo, who is a long-term casualty, and Rom\u00e9o Lavia \u2013 like Badiashile \u2013 has only just rejoined for training, having not played this season. He is also a doubt. \u201cRom\u00e9o and Beno\u00eet are better,\u201d Maresca said. \u201cWe\u2019ll see if they can join us. Otherwise it will be for the next one.\u201d<\/p>\n With Palmer out, it is an irritation that Facundo Buonanotte, who is on loan from Brighton, is ineligible to face his parent club. Liam Delap\u2019s hamstring injury-absence squeezes Maresca\u2019s options up front. Could the winger Tyrique George continue as the No 9, where he filled in at Lincoln?<\/p>\n