Enzo Maresca confirms Cole Palmer's fitness in the balance ahead of Chelsea's Brentford clash

Palmer, 23, missed the Blues' wins over West Ham United and Fulham due to an injury sustained during the warm-up at the London Stadium. He was not called up for England duty during the international break and has spent the past two weeks on recovery work.

Maresca explained: "Cole took part in a session yesterday for the first time, but not the entire session. Today in the afternoon, we have one more session, and we are going to try with him and see if he is ok. Otherwise, he will be out tomorrow again. He had an injury, but he has recovered from the injury. So it wasn't about managing him; it was him recovering from the injury.

"From the moment he is available, we have to think about how to manage him a little bit because of the amount of games we have coming."

One confirmed absentee for the Gtech Community Stadium trip is striker Liam Delap. The 22-year-old suffered a hamstring injury during the win over Fulham, pulling up in the 14th minute, and Maresca has set a recovery timeline.

He said: "Liam is around 10-12 weeks, so a long way to go."

Maresca also updated on Chelsea's Brazilian contingent, who recently returned from 2026 World Cup qualifying duty against Bolivia in La Paz, played at 13,412 feet above sea level. The Blues' coach acknowledged the challenge of recovering quickly after high-altitude matches.

He said: "The three Brazilian players arrived yesterday but didn't train; they did a recovery session. Moises Caicedo arrived last night from Colombia. I didn't see him, but I will see him today. So, for all of them, it's a question mark for tomorrow, but when they play in Bolivia, it's so difficult to be back at full fitness very soon."

Chelsea fans will be watching closely as this afternoon's session could determine whether Palmer can return to action after missing key matches during a crucial stage of the season.