Chelsea enter the new Premier League season with a relatively clean bill of health, but the club is managing two significant injury concerns that could shape their campaign. Cole Palmer, the club's most important player, spent the summer recovering from a chronic groin condition, while teenage winger Estevao is returning from a rare grade-four hamstring tear.
Cole Palmer's groin nightmare and the summer of rest
Cole Palmer lived through injury hell during the first half of last season, with a groin condition called pubalgia consistently derailing his campaign. The chronic groin and lower abdomen issue, which also affects Barcelona sensation Lamine Yamal, cost Palmer his place in Thomas Tuchel's England squad, leaving him at home during the summer.
Rather than going down the surgery route, Chelsea opted for careful game management. That approach paid off as Palmer became more durable as the season wore on. However, the 2025-26 campaign began with Palmer playing the full 90 minutes on the opening day, a feat he did not repeat until January the previous season.
Stephen Smith, CEO and founder of Kitman Labs, which specialises in injury welfare and performance analytics, told Metro: 'From a groin injury perspective, the evidence consistently shows players returning from those sort of injuries before full tissue healing are significantly more likely to reinjure. So to get a full summer off after his troubles last season will be huge. Not just rest but it also allowed him to move into a structured rehab process without the pressure of matches or the pressure of having to be available every week. It completely changes the picture. I would expect to see a more fitter and more robust Cole Palmer this season. I think that is a realistic outcome knowing how well the process will have been managed at Chelsea.'
Estevao's return from a rare grade-four hamstring tear
Estevao's bright first season in the Premier League ended in devastating fashion in April, when he suffered a hamstring tear that ruled him out of Brazil's World Cup campaign. Hamstring injuries are rated in severity, usually from grade one for the least damage up to grade three for more severe cases. Estevao's was labelled a rare grade four.
His recovery process has been promising. The winger featured in pre-season and came off the bench in Chelsea's final pre-season match against Real Sociedad on Saturday in the second half. A staggered return to action is likely to be on the cards for Estevao, with the club fully aware of the risks that could lie ahead.
'A tear of that magnitude was severe,' Smith said. 'The fact he is back in training at all now is really positive but the critical distinction is between training and match readiness. Full training is not the end point for an injury like that. Progressive match exposure will be. For a tear of that severity you would typically want to see full training integration, high speed running metrics back to their base line and ideally a very structured return. Recovery for any player can be tricky but considering his age and profile in competitive football there will be a significant recurrence risk before those markers are met.'
