Having featured in our play-off victory against Serviette, Palmer was not registered for the league phase of our European campaign due to load management.

However, prior to the Conference League knockout stage, Palmer was added to the Chelsea squad alongside Trevoh Chalobah and Mathis Amougou.

‘It was planned at the beginning of the season,’ explained Maresca. ‘For the first six months, we tried to give him more rest. It was the same for Wes (Fofana) and Romeo (Lavia). Unfortunately, the other two have had injuries, but the plan was exactly this plan.

‘Since we started, every decision we have taken is trying to protect players.

‘Now we have Premier League games and Conference League games and they are all important. We could change players in the squad and we decided to add Cole, for instance, for the final part of the season. And if he is in the squad he can play minutes, no doubt.’

Maresca added with a smile: ‘Cole is excited to play in a training session, so for sure he is excited to play in these kinds of games.’