Enzo Maresca has hinted he could turn to Cole Palmer to solve Chelsea’s striker shortage.

The Blues were struck by a double blow when both Nicolas Jackson and Marc Guiu were injured during Monday night’s 2-1 win over West Ham.

Guiu is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines, and while Jackson’s hamstring issue is not as serious, he is a major doubt for Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Brighton.

The West Ham game took place in the final hours before the January transfer window closed, leaving Chelsea no time to react, though they did still allow Joao Felix to join AC Milan on loan.

Maresca has Christopher Nkunku as a centre-forward option, but has repeatedly said that the Frenchman’s best position is at No10, where he will likely serve as backup to Palmer during the second half of the season now that Felix has left.

Asked who his fit striking options were, Maresca jokingly pointed at himself before raising the intriguing possibility of using talisman Palmer higher up the pitch.

“We have players,” he said. Christo has played already as a nine. I had Cole playing as a nine in the past [in Manchester City’s youth set-up].

“We can find some different solutions. At the moment, we didn’t decide anything because we are still waiting for Nico and from there, we will see different options.”

Palmer already shoulders a heavy burden from a scoring and creative standpoint, having racked up 14 goals and six assists in the Premier League this term.

On Friday, he was also added to the Blues’s squad for the Conference League knockout stages, having been left out of league phase over workload concerns.

The injuries and departures in Chelsea’s attack threaten to pile even more responsibility onto the 22-year-old but Maresca is not concerned about burnout heading into the business end of the campaign.

“We have just 14 [league] games to go,” he said. “It’s just 14 games, not a big number.

“Since we started, Cole plays always, so I don’t think it is something that is going to make a difference for Cole. Also we have Christo in that position. We can have different players who play there.”

Even prior to their injuries, there had been fresh talk about Chelsea’s need for upgrades at centre-forward, with Nkunku linked with a January exit and Jackson in the midst of his worst scoring drought since signing for the club, having not scored in eight league games.

“From now to the summer, we have still four, five months,” Maresca added. “For sure, in the summer, we will see if we need something different, not only in terms of striker but in general. From there, we decide.

“It’s bad luck that in the same game, two strikers both have an injury. But fortunately the Nico one looks quite good, so it’s not a problem.

“It's a shame for Marc. The reason why Marc was still here in January and we didn't decide to [loan] him was because I can see, day by day, that he is growing, improving, getting better. It is a shame now that he is injured. The future will be 100 per cent with him because he is a very good player.”