Cole Palmer has been forced to withdraw from the England squad after picking up a muscle injury.
The 24-year-old suffered a muscle and groin issue during Chelsea’s recent clash with Brentford, having completed the full 90 minutes in the match.
Palmer had been recalled by England manager Thomas Tuchel for the upcoming Nations League fixtures, as England begin a new two-year cycle with their eyes determinedly fixed on Euro 2028 glory.
England return to Nations League Group A and will open their campaign against Spain at Wembley on Saturday. They will then travel to face Czechia and Croatia before returning to Wembley for another meeting with Czechia.
Sharing his recovery and fitness update, Palmer said, “Physically I feel good, probably the best I’ve felt in ages, but I think I can get fitter with games and more minutes.
“Before my groin injury, I’d never really been injured. Well, rarely injured. So then I would just come back and play when I shouldn’t have played”.
“Obviously the World Cup was coming up, so I was in a bit of a dilemma thinking: ‘If I don’t play, I’m not going to go. But if I play, then I can’t play.
“It was just a bit of a sticky situation. I didn’t really know how to deal with it, but it’s one of those things. I was just seeing different people, getting different ideas of why I was injured and what it was.
“Since I’ve come back, I’ve been working every day to obviously stop it happening again. I just want to stay injury-free, and if I’m on the pitch then I know what I can do.”
England manager Thomas Tuchel has announced that Morgan Gibbs-White will replace Palmer. The 26-year-old has made six appearances for the England senior team since making his debut in 2024. Before that, he represented England at youth level and helped the Under-17s win the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup, and the Under-21s win the 2023 European Championship.
Tuchel said, “We can see the form Morgan is in, and he ended the season very strongly and was the key player for Forest to not be relegated. We can see him stepping up now.
