Maresca: Palmer will be out for another six weeks, and Badiashile will be out until December

At 19:30 on October 18, in the 8th round of the 2025-26 Premier League season, Chelsea will play Nottingham Forest away. Before the game, Blues coach Maresca attended the press conference. He talked about some of the team's current situation.

About the team's injury situation

- My previous estimate of Palmer's situation was wrong. Unfortunately, he will be absent for another six weeks.

Talking about Palmer again

- We are trying to protect Palmer as much as possible, and most importantly, when he comes back, he is fully healthy.

Continuing to talk about Palmer

- Medical staff are not magicians, and we hope that six weeks will be enough for him to recover. We need to look at it step by step and for sure, he will be fine.

How is Palmer's condition?

- He looks relaxed, working hard to recover from injury and trying all the treatments available.

Regarding the injuries of other players

- Colwell and Delap are still absent. Unfortunately, due to muscle problems, Badiashile will be absent until December, we need to wait. Caicedo, Enzo and Neto did not participate in yesterday's training and we will see if they can participate in training today. Reece James is fine, he's fully healthy.

On the win over Liverpool and the red card

- It was a big moment for many reasons. We have never won a last minute game at home since I joined the club. We did it against the Premier League champions and, of course, it was a big moment. For me personally, that was a normal reaction at the time.

About Nottingham Forest conceding the goal after 70 minutes

- When we analyze a team we take everything into account and you have to analyze it game by game. Things are always different, of course, during the international break we watched all the games that Postkoglu coached and making changes is usually something you would plan for but sometimes it depends on the game.

About set pieces this season

- Bernardo has been the man responsible for set pieces since I joined the club. We haven't changed anything, we work the same way. We spend time on set pieces and you can score or concede, depending on the details. We're doing a good job at this.

About the choice to replace Palmer

-First of all, it is difficult to replace Palmer. Palmer is a very important player for us and one of the best players in the league. In Palmer's place against Liverpool we had Gusteau and against Benfica it was Bonanotte. It depends on our game plan, we don't have a player like Palmer, he is unique.

About the international break

- It's been a great period, Adarabioyo is back, Fofana is back, Andre Santos is back. Enzo, Caicedo and Neto did not participate in training and we will try to find the best solution for the next games.