Cole Palmer was subbed off at half-time during Chelsea’s Europa Conference League quarter-final against Legia Warsaw.
Palmer started the clash out in Poland after being benched for Sunday’s Premier League draw with Brentford and coming on as a substitute.
The 22-year-old, one of the best players in the Premier League last season, missed Chelsea’s defeat to Arsenal before the international break and was subsequently ruled out of England’s two first games under ex-Blues boss Thomas Tuchel.
Palmer and Chelsea struggled to break Legia Warsaw down in the opening 45 minutes of their first leg European contest.
Enzo Maresca took off Palmer and Tosin Adarabioyo at the half-time interval, bringing on Noni Madueke and Levi Colwill.
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Chelsea’s dominance and possession finally resulted in a goal shortly after the break as Tyrique George continued his impressive rise with the opener.
Madueke then netted a quickfire brace as the Premier League giants took full control of the tie with a 3-0 first-leg win.
Palmer was pictured wrapping up warm on the Chelsea bench as the goals began to fly in and Maresca confirmed his withdrawal was pre-planned.
‘We planned for him and Tosin to come off on 45 minutes,’ he said at his post-match press conference. ‘Everything is fine.
‘We planned the game to try to have our best players for this game and to also give chances for some rest and to recover energy.’
On Chelsea’s win, Maresca added: ‘Overall, a professional performance, a good result.
‘We were much better in the second-half compared to the first-half for different reasons. We need to learn to play different kind of games.
‘It’s not easy because it happens a lot. We have to learn to play that kind of games against teams that sit back.
‘For sure, you can be quicker on the ball and take more risks, shoot more, like we scored the first one.’
Maresca also praised Chelsea academy graduate George, who scored his first senior goal for the club.
‘I’m happy first of all for the Chelsea academy because he is one of our boys,’ he said.
‘He was quite good in the first-half, taking responsibility. He was probably even better in the middle in the second half.’
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