Chelsea injury dossier: How Cole Palmer can avoid another nightmare and Estevao return

There has been another reset at Chelsea this summer after a season to forget at Stamford Bridge last term.

Xabi Alonso is the latest coach to come in the door, tasked with providing the stability and consistency that the BlueCo era in west London has so sorely lacked.

Last season’s 10^th place finish did little to blunt their ambition in the transfer market this summer, signing Morgan Rogers for a club record fee of £117million. The arrival of Maxence Lacroix provides more steel at the back with the experienced heads of Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson now also along for the ride.

Missing out on European qualification last season was disastrous but with the dust now settled, the lighter schedule could be the platform for improvement with a talented and rested squad hopeful of springing a major surprise.

While there are some knocks for the fringe members of the squad, Chelsea boast a relatively clean bill of health heading into their Premier League opener against Fulham on Monday. Will that last?

Keeping Palmer fit this season

Cole Palmer lived through injury hell during the first-half of last season with a groin injury consistently derailing his campaign. His struggles for form and fitness ultimately cost him his place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad with the former Manchester City star left at home this summer.

Perhaps privately, Chelsea will not have minded one bit having their most important player resting up all summer. Palmer played the full 90 minutes on the opening day of last season and didn’t repeat that feat until January. The specific condition Palmer was battling with is called pubalgia, a chronic groin and lower abdomen issue that Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal also deals with.

Rather than going down the surgery route, Chelsea opted for careful game management, an approach that paid off with Palmer becoming more durable as the season wore on.

As Palmer was well aware of last season, returning early from a chronic issue like the one he has suffered with can be costly.

While he might not have been happy kicking his heels at home this summer while England’s latest World Cup charge fell short, the benefits for him and Chelsea could be huge this season.

‘From a groin injury perspective, the evidence consistently shows players returning from those sort of injuries before full tissue healing are significantly more likely to reinjure,’ Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro.

‘So to get a full summer off after his troubles last season will be huge. Not just rest but it was have also allowed him to move into a structured rehab process without the pressure of matches or the pressure of having to be available every week. It completely changes the picture. I would expect to see a more fitter and more robust Cole Palmer this season. I think that is a realistic outcome knowing how well the process will have been managed at Chelsea.’

When will Estevao be up to full speed?

Estevao’s bright first season in the Premier League ended in rather devastating fashion in April, suffering a hamstring tear that ruled him out of Brazil’s World Cup campaign. Hamstring injuries are rated in severity, usually from grade one for the least damage up to three for more severe cases. Estavao’s was labelled a rare grade four.

But his recovery process has promising. The winger featured in pre-season and came off the bench in Chelsea’s final pre-season match against Real Sociedad on Saturday in the second-half.

A staggered return to action is likely to be on the cards for Estevao with the club fully aware of the risks that could lie ahead.

‘A tear of that magnitude was severe,’ Smith said. ‘The fact he is back in training at all now is really positive but the critical distinction is between training and match readiness. Full training is not the end point for an injury like that. Progressive match exposure will be.

‘For a tear of that severity you would typically want to see full training integration, high speed running metrics back to their base line and ideally a very structured return.

‘Recovery for any player can be tricky but considering his age and profile in competitive football there will be a significant recurrence risk before those markers are met.’