Chelsea hope to have Cole Palmer back on the field this month, but cannot confirm a plan for him until he returns to first team training.
The England international has been dealing with a nagging groin injury all season and has been left out of the Blues’ last nine games in order to recover.
His last outing was against Manchester United on September 20 when he had to be taken off after 21 minutes due to the injury flaring up.
Enzo Maresca’s team lost that game and have gone on to have mixed results in Palmer’s absence, picking up impressive wins over the likes of Liverpool, Ajax, Benfica and Tottenham, but also losing to Brighton and Sunderland.
Chelsea take on Qarabag in the Champions League on Wednesday and will remain without Palmer, likely to still be without him for Premier League clashes with Wolves and Burnley to come.
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However, asked if Palmer could return against Barcelona on November 25, Maresca sounded more optimistic.
‘We hope so but with Cole, we try to schedule the beginning and then we need to review that,’ said the Blues boss.
‘We go day by day with Cole. He is not taking any sessions with the team.
‘We have Benoit Badiashile that can probably be available after the international break and for us, that is huge news.
‘To be honest, I would like to have Cole here tomorrow. We’d like to have Cole every game. I’ve said many times that we are a better team with Cole. Unfortunately for us it’s out, it’s injury, but for sure we want him back very soon.’
Maresca is dealing with other injuries, with Pedro Neto missing out in midweek, although it is just a minor issue for the winger.
Romeo Lavia is fit again, but the manager spoke out about a cautious easing him back into full games after he missed such a huge amount of football since arriving from Southampton in the summer of 2023.
The 21-year-old has played just 29 times in over two years due to a string of muscular issues, but Maresca says he is now fully fit.
‘The main target for Romeo now is to be fit. Don’t get any injuries,’ said Maresca. ‘For me, at this moment, Romeo is where Reece [James] was more or less one year ago in terms of back after a long time.
‘We need to manage him every minute, every day, every second. And the target with him is just to keep him fit. So, he’s training with us. He’s OK. He’s 100 per cent fit. But we need to be very careful with him because we don’t want him to be out again and finally he can enjoy being a football player.
‘In the Forest game, we planned for him 45 minutes. Then Ajax, I think he played one hour, 70 minutes. The other day against Tottenham, when he was on, he was very good.
‘We are happy with Romeo. We are happy with the way he’s progressing. And the only thing we want is to keep him fit. So, I would like to have Romeo inside the pitch always. But it’s my duty to try to protect also him.’