Chelsea cautious with Cole Palmer ahead of Brentford trip

Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said Cole Palmer is being carefully managed ahead of Saturday's Premier League trip to Brentford after the winger-mider returned to light training but remains a fitness doubt. Palmer missed Chelsea's last two league games after pulling up in the warmup before the 5-1 win at West Ham last month and sat out England's September internationals. The match at the Gtech Community Stadium kicks off at 8pm BST on September 13 and will be shown on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League.

Maresca said Palmer "took part in the session yesterday for the first time, not the entire session," and that the squad would assess him again before the weekend. "We have one more session this afternoon and we are going to try with him to see if he is okay, otherwise he will be out tomorrow," the coach said at his pre-match press conference. He added that Palmer is "recovering from an injury, it is not managing him" and stressed the need to manage the 23-year-old's minutes given Chelsea's congested schedule, including a Champions League trip to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

Palmer's availability is only one of several selection headaches for Maresca. Chelsea already...