Chelsea handed unexpected injury twist as huge Cole Palmer update emerges

Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill have both pulled out of England duty for Nations League fixtures against Greece and Ireland over the November international break, as confirmed in a statement. Both stars played the full 90 minutes of the Premier League draw against Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, with concern now emerging on both.

Given the doubt surrounding Palmer in the lead up to their London derby, it is perhaps no surprise he has left St George's Park. However, Colwill's omission is certainly a surprise and also a major scare for Enzo Maresca, given his importance to the Blues.

The 21-year-old has started and played every minute of all 11 league games for Chelsea this season, with it clear he has become a leader in the squad. "When you don’t have a proper leader, you need to build that. I think we don’t have a proper leader,” he told The Telegraph.

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“Probably Tosin is one of the guys that is. So the rest, we need to build them. The one that is doing fantastic in this kind of thing is Levi. Levi probably at the beginning of the season was not a leader but now you can see that he is one of the guys that is always speaking. We need to build that."

Colwill and Palmer will now spend the next two weeks at Cobham recovering from their respective issues. Trent Alexander-Arnold, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Aaron Ramsdale, Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka are also unavailable, with the latter duo both subbed off because of issues against Chelsea.

With so many players dropping out, Morgan Rogers, Jarrod Bowen, Jarrad Branthwaite, Tino Livramento, James Trafford have all been called up as replacements in what will be in a new-look squad for the final two England games of 2024.

Chelsea return to Premier League action later this month away at Leicester and Maresca will be very keen for both of his players to be available. If that is not the case, Axel Disasi and Tosin Adarabioyo are both capable of filling in with the latter having already deputised in the absence of Wesley Fofana due to suspension against West Ham.