Enzo Maresca is not sure if Nicolas Jackson, Cole Palmer and Marc Cucurella will be ready to face Inter Milan on Sunday but is hopeful they will be available for the game against Manchester City.
The Blues rounded out their pre-season tour with a 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid meaning they won just one of their five games in America.
The squad now head back to London to prepare for their final game against Inter at Stamford Bridge before the season begins.
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It’s been a mixed bag out in America and whilst results don’t matter in pre-season it would have been nice to record a few more victories.
Maresca has been able to have a good look at the players and will have learnt a lot from the five games but there’s still a lot of work to be done, especially defensively with the Blues looking particularly vulnerable at the back.
There have been some positives with the players showing signs of starting to understand what is being asked of them and you can see a clear style of play and identity emerging.
Whilst the 44-year-old pretty much had a full squad to choose from there’s still three important players in Jackson, Palmer and Cucurella who have yet to feature.
Jackson is still recovering from an ankle injury he picked up in a World Cup Qualifier for Senegal earlier this summer and Cucurella and Palmer aren’t on the tour following their exploits at Euro 2024.
Maresca described the trio as important players but couldn’t guarantee if they would be ready to feature this weekend or against City on the opening day.
“We will see, I’m not sure for Inter, hopefully the City game,” he told reporters.
“They are all important players. Between Cole and Nicolas last year they scored almost 40 goals so they are both very important. And Marc, too. The important thing is they start with us and soon we can use them.”
