Cole Palmer among big-name omissions from Chelsea’s Europa Conference League squad

Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia will play no part in the initial stage of competition as club looks to manage their workloads

Cole Palmer is one of three star players Chelsea have omitted from their squad for the league phase of the Europa Conference League.
Chelsea have left Palmer, Wesley Fofana and Romeo Lavia out of the squad that will face Gent, Panathinaikos, Noah, Heidenheim, Astana and Shamrock Rovers in the league phase.
The trio have been left out to manage their respective loads after Palmer withdrew from the latest England squad, having suffered muscle fatigue already this season, and Fofana and Lavia missed all of last season through injury.
Lavia also missed the draw with Crystal Palace ahead of the international break through injury and Chelsea do not want to take any unnecessary risks over any of their players.
Chelsea scraped through the play-off round of the Conference League, losing away to Servette but winning on aggregate, but believe they can reach the knockout round without Palmer, Fofana and Lavia.
Should Chelsea progress, then they will have the opportunity to add all three players back into their squad as the competition becomes tougher.
But head coach Enzo Maresca will face some tough choices if Chelsea sign any more players in January with clubs allowed to make a maximum of three changes to their Conference League squads.
Other than the Conference League, Chelsea will compete in the Club World Cup in the United States next summer with the expectation the squad may have to be able to cope with playing between 70 and 80 games between now and July next year.
Ben Chilwell has also been left out of Chelsea’s Conference League squad in a further indication that last season’s vice-captain will not play any senior football if he cannot secure a move to Turkey.
The Turkish transfer window remains open and Chelsea are open to loaning Chilwell out, but so far there have been no firm offers.