Chelsea striker Liam Delap is set to be sidelined until December after suffering a hamstring injury against Fulham prior to the international break.

Delap, who joined from Ipswich for £30m in the summer, was substituted after just 14 minutes in clash at Stamford Bridge, which saw Chelsea emerge 2-0 victors amid VAR controversy.

The injury leaves Chelsea short on strikers, with the club recalling Marc Guiu less than a month into his loan at Sunderland the day after Delap picked up the problem to provide cover.

Joao Pedro will likely be Maresca’s preferred option to lead the line following his summer move from Brighton, while Nicolas Jackson is no longer in the picture following his loan to Bayern Munich.

“Liam Delap will be out for 10-12 weeks, unfortunately it’s a long way to go,” manager Enzo Maresca said at his press conference ahead of this weekend’s clash at Brentford.

“For us, the only number nine is [Marc] Guiu and Joao [Pedro] can play there, and against Fulham we used Ty [George].”

Maresca also provided an update on the fitness of Cole Palmer, who Che;sea hope will feature against the Bees after missing both victories against West Ham and Fulham with a groin problem.

“Cole took part in the session yesterday for the first time, not the entire session,” Maresca said.

“We have one more session this afternoon and we are going to try with him to see if he’s OK, otherwise he will be out tomorrow.

“He is recovering from an injury. When he is available, we need to manage him because of the amount of games.”