Thomas Tuchel gives Cole Palmer injury update as Chelsea star faces anxious wait

Thomas Tuchel has provided an update on Cole Palmer, who is yet to join up with the England camp for their matches against Albania and Latvia.

The 22-year-old Chelsea attacker was named in Tuchel's first squad as Three Lions boss but due to an injury he picked up before the defeat to Arsenal at the weekend, he is yet to link up with his teammates at St. Georges Park. Chelsea released a statement earlier in the week to say Palmer was still at Cobham, but the club did not rule out the attacker joining the national team at a later date.

However, Tuchel, speaking in his pre-Albania press conference on Thursday afternoon, has confirmed it "makes no sense" for Palmer to join up with the squad now.

"Cole will not be with us. He was not on the pitch with Chelsea. We have waited quite a while now for feedback and for the chance to maybe call him up. He's not on the pitch and he's not available, so it makes no sense to call him up now."

Palmer missed Sunday's defeat at Arsenal, with head coach Enzo Maresca confirming post-match that it was a "muscular" issue for the former Manchester City man. He then had a scan on the problem on Monday in Cobham but football.london understands the injury will have to be scanned once again.

Chelsea remain hopeful Palmer will return to the squad for the Blues' Premier League clash with Tottenham on April 3 - the first game after the ongoing international break. However, it remains to be seen the true extent of the injury.

Elsewhere, Chelsea duo Levi Colwill and Reece James have been training with former Blues head coach Tuchel at St. Georges Park this week. Tuchel was asked recently about where he thinks James is best suited on the pitch. Maresca spoke earlier in the month about his captain and detailed how he thinks he will end up being a central midfielder.

Tuchel, though, disagrees: "I know Reece. In calling him up now, we made sure we called him up that he was constantly available in training, that he was constantly available to be picked for matches - so that when he's not picked for matches, it's not because of injury, it's just a choice of the club to maybe protect him a little bit. This was the basis for the nomination.

"I still feel he is a player for the full-back and wing-back positions, I think we have enough players in central midfielder who are more specialists there."