Xabi Alonso explains how ‘world class’ Cole Palmer can bounce back this term

Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso said Cole Palmer is over the injury problems that wrecked his season and is determined to get back to enjoying playing football.

Palmer made only 26 appearances in the Premier League during the last campaign, scoring 10 goals and struggling to reach the levels shown in his first two seasons at Stamford Bridge.

He appeared to be suffering from limited mobility at times after coming back into the team from the groin problem that caused him to miss most of the first three months, and his creative contributions were significantly down on previous years.

That led to him being left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup. As a result, the 24-year-old was able to enjoy a first summer without competitive football since 2022.

“Cole is determined to enjoy his football,” said Alonso. “He wants to be fit. He wants to feel healthy. He wants to have a good connection with the players around him.

“I’ve said that if we have this Cole and we are able to reach him and he feels that flow in the game and that he connects well with the players, I’m sure that his level is top class, world class I would say, and that he will have a great season.”

Palmer’s injury problems last season began in August when he was withdrawn from the starting lineup shortly before kick-off in Chelsea’s 5-1 win away against West Ham.

He appeared only twice more in the first team in the league until December, and although he missed only two league matches thereafter, he was unable to match the standards set in previous seasons, as a misfiring Chelsea finished 10th.

Tuchel said publicly in March that Palmer had been unable to fully extend his groin after returning from the injury.

Ahead of Monday’s opening Premier League game against Fulham at Craven Cottage, Alonso was asked whether he believed Palmer’s injury troubles were in the past.

“Yes,” he said. “I think that sometimes you need to go through a difficult moment with an injury or whatever to learn from that.

“I think that Cole has gone through a difficult period with the injury, and now he’s working really hard to have the prevention not to have to feel those symptoms.

“Since the first day, he’s been working really hard to avoid that.”

Chelsea are set to give debuts to a number of summer signings in Monday’s west London derby, with Maxence Lacroix, Morgan Rogers and Marco Palestra all available.

Danny Welbeck is also fit and ready to feature, though Jordan Henderson has trained separately from Alonso’s main group while he recovers his fitness.