palmed off Cole Palmer should NOT go to the World Cup with England… Chelsea star has faded and we can’t afford any passengers

With two goals and an assist in a 3-0 win over European champions Paris Saint-Germain, the Blues' No 10 looked like one of the world's best in that position.

Cole Palmer should not go to the World Cup this summer

If England found themselves playing the last match of the proper World Cup in the same venue a year later, you felt Palmer would be instrumental.

Yet now he is well off holding down a place in Thomas Tuchel's starting line-up.

In fact, Palmer should not have a seat on the plane at all.

Cue howls of derision. What an own goal it would be, surely, to leave one of the country's most talented players at home.

Absolutely — if he had shown enough of that talent this season to deserve a place ahead of other candidates. But he hasn't.

Niggling injuries have played a big part. Yet even when Palmer has supposedly been fully fit, he has rarely been the player he was for his first one-and-a-half seasons at Stamford Bridge.

That is why his former Manchester City academy team-mate Morgan Rogers has emerged as Tuchel's preferred candidate for the central role in the three attacking players behind — fingers crossed — a fit and firing Harry Kane.

The raw statistics suggest Palmer would at least be a good backup for Aston Villa star Rogers.

All things considered, his ten goals and three assists in 29 appearances across all competitions are not a bad return.

But strip out the five penalties and Palmer's numbers, either in total or per 90 minutes, are less impressive.

Jude Bellingham has had his own problems with form and fitness this season.

But his versatility as an all-round midfielder and forward, on top of some statistical superiority, gives him the edge.

No one thinks Phil Foden should go to the World Cup, yet some of his stats are better than Palmer's.

You can even make a case for Arsenal's Eberechi Eze or Nottingham Forest's Morgan Gibbs-White being stronger wildcard picks.

What about right wing? Bukayo Saka will start, if fit, so Palmer as his understudy? West Ham's Jarrod Bowen would  have something to say about that.

No one is claiming Bowen is more gifted than Palmer and the Hammers captain has never reproduced his club form for England.

But the tireless, rarely-injured Bowen has ten goals and 11 assists despite having to work hard defensively, too, for a struggling team this season.

Squeezing Palmer in as an option on the left feels desperate and unfair — certainly on Marcus Rashford and even on Anthony Gordon.

Should a spot still be found for someone who could, with one moment of inspiration, turn a tight game in the knockout stages?

As Palmer did when he came on and scored in the Euro 2024 final.

But the only time he has changed a big match this season was as a sub in Chelsea's Champions League win at Napoli.

And he has scored only once against clubs in the Premier League top five.

Some might say, in case of penalty shootouts, England should not leave home without Mr Ice Cold, the man who  scored the first spot-kick against Switzerland in the Euro 2024 quarter-final.

But there is no room for passengers at the longest, hottest, most gruelling World Cup ever.

England took an injured James Maddison to Qatar in 2022 and he never kicked a ball. Maddison's early-season form at least justified the initial call-up.

With Palmer fit enough only for a late, unproductive cameo in last weekend's FA Cup semi-final, time is running out to stake his claim.

He — and his sponsors — will be desperate for him to go to America.

But Tuchel is his own man, refusing to be swayed by celebrity and willing to take decisions that are unpopular.

In some ways, leaving Palmer out would be an act of mercy.

The 23-year-old has barely had a break in nearly three years.

Over-playing is undoubtedly a major factor in his body showing signs of frailty for the first time — and in his output dipping noticeably since the start of 2025, as the stats also show.