Overview
- Chelsea left Cole Palmer and Levi Colwill out of the Hong Kong friendly with Juventus as a precaution after they picked up minor contact knocks.
- Alonso told reporters the problems are not serious and specifically denied Palmer had suffered a recurrence of last season’s groin issue.
- Both players had started and played about 80 minutes in Chelsea’s warm-up loss to Tottenham in Sydney, increasing the club’s caution over their short turnaround.
- Levi Colwill’s recent return from a season-long ACL layoff makes any new knock especially sensitive, so Chelsea are managing his minutes carefully.
- Mykhailo Mudryk returned as a substitute after the CAS overturned his ban, giving Alonso another selection option ahead of Saturday’s friendly against AC Milan.