Why Chelsea’s Cole Palmer did not play during international break

An insight into Cole Palmer’s lack of game time for England during the March international break has been provided.

Palmer has been Chelsea’s standout star of 2023/24 and is expected to impress once more this weekend when the Blues host Burnley on Saturday. Back Chelsea to beat Burnley and Cole Palmer to score anytime at 6/4 with bet365.

Why Cole Palmer did not play during the international break

After such a strong 2023/24 campaign for his club, Palmer was expected to be given a chance to impress for England ahead of Euro 2024.

However, the forward missed the Brazil defeat and was left on the bench as the Three Lions were held to a 2-2 draw by Belgium.

The reason for this is a minor injury meant Palmer missed the Brazil game and a lot of training over the break. In turn, Gareth Southgate did not believe the Chelsea man was fit enough to come off the bench vs Belgium:

“I said when I named the squad there is competition for places in those wide areas,” Southgate stated.

“It’s a bit of a shame that Cole Palmer missed so much training that we weren’t able to put him into the game [against Belgium] at the stage it was, having missed most of the week.

“We weren’t 100 per cent certain what we would get whereas with Gordon we knew and [James] Maddison we knew. I wouldn’t rule Cole out of that equation.”