Struggling to find his flow and still battling fitness issues at the end of an injury-plagued season, Cole Palmer will on Monday go head-to-head with the player who poses an existential threat to his World Cup dream in Morgan Gibbs-White. The Chelsea talisman and the resurgent Nottingham Forest star form part of an intense fight for the No.10 shirt in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.Struggling to find his flow and still battling fitness issues at the end of an injury-plagued season, Cole Palmer will on Monday go head to head with the player who poses an existential threat to his World Cup dream in Morgan Gibbs-White. The Chelsea talisman and the resurgent Nottingham Forest star form part of an intense fight for the No.10 shirt in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad.Palmer and Gibbs-White will face off against each other at Stamford Bridge in polar opposite form; hampered by injuries, the former is still scratching around for the kind of world-class impact we all know he is capable of, while the latter is on fire as his goals propel Forest towards Premier League safety.Gibbs-White is still believed to be an outsider in the quest to secure a seat on England’s flight to North America this summer, but his exploits are becoming impossible to ignore and Palmer will be one of those he is causing to sweat profusely as the clock ticks down to Tuchel’s squad announcement.The Three Lions boss will undoubtedly be casting a keen eye over proceedings at Stamford Bridge and a tussle between two of his plentiful options for the No.10 role. Whoever comes out on top could well sway his thinking. Struggle for form & fitnessPalmer’s struggles this season have been well-documented. Mainly the result of the debilitating chronic groin injury, pubalgia, that left him unable to make his trademark explosive movements and run with his usual cadence, even affecting his ability to shoot properly, Chelsea’s talisman has often looked a shadow of his former self this season. It looked as though he might be back to something like his best when he netted a hat-trick against Wolves in February, but along with so many of his teammates he seemed to suffer a crisis of confidence in the ensuing weeks amid the dire run of form that led to Liam Rosenior’s sacking. It’s worth noting that, despite missing a significant chunk of the campaign, he has still hit double figures for goals across all competitions, including nine in the Premier League (albeit that includes five penalties) where he has…
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2026-05-03 21:20:07
