Palmer backed to respond positively to World Cup snub

Cole Palmer needs to respond positively to his shock omission from England’s World Cup squad, says Chelsea interim boss Calum McFarlane.

The Blues star was left out of the squad announced on Friday morning by England boss Thomas Tuchel.

“I think in life and in football, you especially in football I’ve learned that you need to take every setback as a positive,” McFarlane said. “There’s going to be lots of them.

“There’s going to be losses, there’s going to be moments like this and if you have the right mindset you can turn it into a positive.

“The reason they’re at this level and able to play for a club of this magnitude is because they can deal with setbacks.

“If they wouldn’t and they didn’t have that resilience they wouldn’t be international footballers, they wouldn’t have won competitions they’ve won, they wouldn’t be as good as they are as players. So they’ll be able to deal with any setback.”

The squad announcement dropped just before Chelsea’s training session on Friday morning.

“I’ve spoken loads of times about what I feel and how the club feel about Cole,” McFarlane added.

“The England manager made a decision in that moment, it’s probably best to speak to him, but we have full belief and trust in Cole.

“We know that he’s a quality player and we’ll be relying on him on Sunday.”

Meanwhile, Chelsea are hopeful that Joao Pedro and Levi Colwill will return to the squad for the game against Sunderland.