The Blues head to the Welsh capital for tomorrow’s Carabao Cup tie, with a place in the last-four awaiting the victors. Victory over Wolves in the round previous set up Tuesday's clash, which kicks-off at 8pm.

Palmer, who recently returned to action following a spell on the sidelines with a groin – and then toe – issue, started and scored in our weekend victory over Everton at Stamford Bridge.

Maresca, however, has confirmed that the attacker won’t be part of the squad for our clash with the Bluebirds in an attempt to keep him fresh for the trip to Newcastle on Saturday.

‘I’ve already said many times in plenty of press conferences that we have a number of players that need to be protected,’ our Italian head coach explained to the gathered media at Cobham.

‘The target is to protect them and manage them. Cole is one of the players who deserves to be protected right now.

‘In this moment, he’s not available to play two games in three days. So he won’t be available for tomorrow’s game, but should be fine for the weekend.

'We're going to make some changes. We'll see how many, but for sure we have players that in the last 12, 13 days, they've played five games. So they need to probably recover energy.'

The Blues face a Cardiff side high in confidence following a fine start to life in League One under Brian Barry-Murphy.

The Bluebirds are top of the third tier and their head coach, who arrived in the summer from Manchester City, is someone that Maresca knows well from his time at the Etihad.

While looking forward to reuniting with the Irishman, Maresca is under no illusions that the League One pace-setters will provide a real test to his Chelsea squad in South Wales.

‘Yes, he is doing a great job at Cardiff,’ Maresca said of his opposite number.

‘They are top of the league, playing nice football and winning games. I know Brian and know he is doing a good job. I was the Under-23 coach [at Man City] and when I left, he took over from me. He came to see us in sessions and games and I think he’s doing a fantastic job at Cardiff.

‘This will be a dangerous game for us and we need to pay attention, and be careful, tomorrow. We have the opportunity to achieve something important, which is to reach the semi-final of this competition.’