Liam Rosenior confirms Chelsea injury blow amid quadruple positive fitness updates
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Chelsea head coach Liam Rosenior has provided overall positive fitness updates on his squad ahead of Sunday's Premier League trip to Crystal Palace.
The Blues have been dealing with a viral outbreak that has affected several players, such as Liam Delap, Jamie Gittens, Estevao, and Enzo Fernandez.
While all four featured in the Champions League win over Pafos in mid-week, Rosenior previously admitted that they had yet to fully recover, especially Estevao and Gittens, who only featured as substitutes.
Fortunately, ahead of Sunday's visit to Selhurst Park, their recovery has progressed quite well.
"In terms of sickness, the players are coming back to full health," Rosenior said in his press conference on Friday.
"We had to be very careful with that. Thankfully, the lads have come through that.
"Cole (Palmer) is in a good place, he joined training today, which is really positive.
"Jorgensen had his scan and it was positive. He won't be available for Palace but might be for Napoli."
Jorgensen's confirmed absence this weekend should not be a big problem since Robert Sanchez is expected to be in goal for this game anyway, but Palmer's positive fitness update is a huge boost to the team.
The England international was absent against Pafos, and it arguably played a big part in Chelsea's struggle in breaking down the Cypriot side's low block.
Dario Essugo's latest injury setback
It was not all positive, however. Rosenior delivered some bad news regarding summer signing Dario Essugo.
The midfielder has yet to feature for Chelsea since the start of the season, although he already made three appearances from the bench at the Club World Cup.
The 20-year-old has already returned to training since late November and was expected to make his return from a thigh injury in late December.
He is now forced to wait for at least another month before potentially making his Premier League debut.
Tyrique George & Dario Essugo #CFC pic.twitter.com/5VSIm2V8E5
— CFC Pics (@Mohxmmad) November 28, 2025
"Unfortunately, Dario picked up a really unfortunate injury," Rosenior confirmed.
"He slipped in training and will be out for over a month.
"Romeo (Lavia) is on the way back which is great. He's a very, very good player at a very high level.
"We have Enzo, Moi (Caicedo), Andrey Santos and Reece James - it's not bad. I don't want to bring in players that don't enhance the group or the chemistry we're building."
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.