It has been three months since Cole Palmer was last on the bench for a Chelsea match. He started that run in form and is now as out of touch with stardom as he has been since joining the club.

Palmer is likely to be included in Thomas Tuchel's England squad which is announced on Friday and it would be no surprise if he was to start at least one if not both of the World Cup qualifiers. Given that he played against Leicester City on Sunday through illness, even a half-fit Palmer will surely make his way to the Emirates Stadium at the weekend.

Since joining in August 2023, Palmer has missed just two Premier League games for Chelsea. One was through suspension and another was with a cold. He has started 57 of the 61 in that time and has come on in all of the others when being named as a substitute.

Alongside international duty, it has been a massive rise in the load on his young shoulders. Palmer has been the fulcrum for Chelsea since moving and has taken on a key role for England as well, albeit mainly as an impact player so far.

It is perhaps no surprise that he has hit a rocky patch. 22-year-olds do this and it would be inhuman of Palmer to continue his form without a hitch.

There are not many fears that this is going to extend into anything existential because he has proven to be to good for that.

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However, Palmer has gone from almost no senior experience to being relied on by all. It is a lot to continue to take on without regressing.

The caveat here is that throughout almost all of his time at Chelsea, Palmer has had midweeks off. Under Mauricio Pochettino there was no European football at all and this season with Enzo Maresca he was left out of the Conference League group stage squad.

He did feature in the play-offs against Servette in August but was left to be rested for the six group matches following that as Chelsea cruised through, winning all six in comfortable style and with a heavily rotated, often extremely young team. Palmer, in this way, has been protected.

It is notable that Chelsea chose to add him as one of the three permitted changes to UEFA's squad for the season in February. He then started the last-16 away leg against FC Copenhagen.

Maresca might have seen it as a chance to play Palmer into form, much like the fixture against Southampton 10 days earlier had been.

It was his finishing against Saints that went array. In Denmark he simply wasn't able to impact play like usual.

Maresca admitted that Palmer had been struggling with illness in the days leading up to the game but that he still wanted to play regardless.

"Cole, Reece [James] and Christo [Nkunku] today has been the first session [of the week]," Maresca said on Wednesday. "Yesterday they were not here and two days ago they had a rest. The reason why is because all of them had some problems but today, they were all back and they were all better."

All three have fallen foul to a bug going around the camp. Although it is far from ideal for Maresca, especially with the tie still in the balance heading to Stamford Bridge even if Chelsea will still be big favourites,

If it wasn't for his name or achievements across 18 months, Palmer would surely have been dropped or taken out of the firing line already. His impact and importance for the team is impossible to ignore, though.

With other injury and fitness issues limiting Maresca's options in attack there is less room to manoeuvre.

Risking him physically before Arsenal is a bold call and the decision has to be made over whether he is better off pushing to play through poor form only to go further into a rut or whether taking pressure off him is more beneficial. Dropping or resting Palmer would certainly be a big call for Maresca to make but if there ever was an opportunity then it is here, when his body is calling for some give.