Cole Palmer was ruled out of Chelsea’s Premier League win over West Ham at the London Stadium on Friday after suffering a groin injury during the warmup.
The England international was replaced in Chelsea’s starting lineup by Brazilian teenager Estêvão as Chelsea went on to win 5-1 over their London rivals.
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After leaving the warmup early and walking down the tunnel, Palmer took a seat on the Chelsea bench as the game kicked off.
Speaking after the game, Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca said Palmer had been taken out of the team as a precaution.
“In the last four or five days he was not 100 percent and tonight in the warmup he felt again something so we prefer to not start with him, not take any risk to make it worse,” he told Sky Sports. “We’ll see in the next hours if it’s something important or not.
‘It’s a groin problem,” he added. “Already the Palace game he was not 100 percent for, but he has tried to make a big effort for the club, for the team, for the fans, because he is really keen about the team. Tonight he tried again but it was not very good.”
In Palmer’s place, 18-year-old Estêvão made his first start in the Premier League after arriving from Palmeiras in the summer. And he impressed, providing an assist for Enzo Fernández‘s goal to make it 3-1 before halftime.
Chelsea had five different scorers, with João Pedro, Pedro Neto, Moisés Caicedo and Trevoh Chalobah also finding the net.
It was Chelsea’s first win of the season after a goalless draw with Crystal Palace on the Premier League’s opening weekend. And Maresca said it proved once again that his side were not reliant on Palmer
“The ones that say ‘we are just a Cole team,’ for sure Cole is our best player no doubt,” he said. “For sure with Cole we are much better team, but I think we already showed last year in the two or three months where Cole was not 100 percent, when we achieved top four that no one expected.”