Mauricio Pochettino reveals Cole Palmer injury in Chelsea update after Sheffield United draw

Mauricio Pochettino has explained why he chose to substitute Cole Palmer with 20 minutes still on the clock in the Premier League clash against Sheffield United. The England international headed into the game fresh off a stunning hat-trick in the heroic comeback win last Thursday against Manchester United.

Noni Madueke, who made an impact off the bench in that victory, was brought into the starting XI alongside Thiago Silva and it was that duo who both scored for Chelsea either side of Jayden Bogle's fortunate finish from a tight angle.

While Palmer's impact on the game was limited, he teed up Madeuke to thunder home an effort from just inside the box before surprisingly being replaced by Carney Chukwuemeka with Pochettino appearing keen for his star man to not pick up an injury.

As he was scarcely involved in comparison to normal, accompanied with cameras capturing him holding his back in some discomfort, concerns he may have picked up an injury were prominent but Pochettino was quick to ease those concerns in his press conference.

Asked by football.london if he was injured, Pochettino replied: «No, no, no. I think he was tired. My feeling was he was tired. 2-1 for us, Carney is another No.10 who can play there and do the job. Yes, I think we are happy with him.

»We need to protect him. He got a knock against Manchester United and was a little bit more tired than normal, but we wanted to protect him after scoring the second goal. Trying to avoid a problem for the future.” On the result, he added: «Very frustrating because we conceded in the first-half after we scored. Then you concede in the last few minutes, you always feel very disappointed and frustrated.

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