Chelsea come up with clever plan to accelerate Cole Palmer's fractured toe recovery
In this story:
Chelsea have provided star midfielder Cole Palmer a custom boot to help him recover from his latest foot injury as quickly as possible, according to reports.
On Friday, Maresca confirmed that Palmer recently fractured his little toe in a freak accident at home.
This has unfortunately ruled the 23-year-old out of the next Chelsea matches against Burnley, Barcelona, and Arsenal.
Maresca also claimed that Palmer was close to full recovery from the groin issue that has kept him on the sidelines since September.
In other words, Palmer should be able to make his return as soon as his toe, which unfortunately is on his dominant foot, gets better.
According to the Daily Telegraph, to aid the recovery process, Chelsea have had a custom football left boot specially adapted to allow Palmer to be on the training pitch by next week and may even play in it.
The boot reportedly provides more cushioning to the area around his injured little toe.
The report also mentions that Chelsea hope Palmer could, therefore, return in time for the trip to Leeds on December 4 or Bournemouth on December 6.
While Chelsea have done relatively well despite Palmer's absence in the last couple of months, Maresca made it clear that the midfielder is still an important piece in his plans.
"The team prefer it when Cole is playing," said the Italian in the press conference.
"I feel much better with Cole on the pitch, but when he is not, we need to find solutions.
"The team is doing fantastic, really well. For any manager, it's nice when you miss a player, but the team still plays in the way you want it to."
"But, again, we are a better team with Cole."
Gerry Crisandy is a freelance writer who has covered Chelsea for many years. His work has been published on The Chelsea Chronicle and Pride of London. He grew up idolising Michael Ballack and is a firm believer in expected goals.