Enzo Maresca explains Cole Palmer Chelsea substitution amid injury worry vs Legia Warsaw

Enzo Maresca has confirmed Cole Palmer's substitution against Legia Warsaw was planned and not because of an injury.

Palmer was taken off at half-time in Poland, with Noni Madueke taking the England international's place. in the second half, with Tyrique George notching the other, to ensure the Blues came away with a 3-0 win.

Chelsea now have one foot in the semi-final ahead of next week's second leg at Before that, though, Maresca's side welcome Ipswich Town to west London on Sunday and it looks like Palmer will be fit to feature against the strugglers.

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Speaking to the media on Thursday evening, Maresca was asked why he had taken Palmer and Tosin Adarabioyo off at the interval. The Italian said: "We planned for him and Tosin to come off on 45 minutes. Everything is fine."

On the victory, Maresca added: "Yeah, we planned the game to try to have our best players for this game and to give also a chance to the rest players to recover energy and at the end, I think has been overall a professional performance, good result, probably second half we were much better compared to the first half for different reason.

"I said many times that we need to learn how to play different kind of games, you know, when you face Tottenham, we said many times that they try to high pressing, there is more space but when they sit back you have to be more quick on the ball, you have to try to have a shot from outside the box because they are all inside the box, so if you don't shoot it's difficult. Then the first goal I think came from wrist shot, you know, rebound, player was there, Ty was there, so yeah."