Palmer was offered reassuring words of sorts by Tuchel, but his predicament is now clear. He has allowed others to form an orderly queue in front of him in England’s pecking order. They are now Tuchel’s priority, not Palmer.
Tuchel said: “We have enough number 10s and we stick to the guys who were in the previous camp, because we were happy with the two and a half weeks we had together.
“I guess everyone is desperate to play with England and Cole is the same. He misses too many opportunities to impress. It was a long camp but the players in that camp brought something extraordinary.”
“It’s not personal. We will never assume Cole is in the mindset never to come to the camp, but we stick to the guys who were in camp last time. It was excellent. The impact of all the players was immense. We have Josh King as a new player, who can play as a 10 and on both wings.”
He added: “Cole is always in our mindset but the competition is on.”
There may be additional pain, and perhaps a measure of puzzlement, for Palmer in that Tuchel has not just decided to stick with the players from the last camp – calling up Fulham’s King and, the major incoming surprise, 21-year-old Jobe Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund.
Palmer said he had played for Chelsea with “discomfort and pain” before the last round of England fixtures, which included a 3-2 loss to Spain at Wembley, a win away to the Czech Republic, a Wembley victory in that return fixture and a 7-0 rout of Croatia in Rijeka.
And Chelsea manager Xabi Alonso has also insisted Palmer was “struggling” in Chelsea’s 3-0 defeat at Brentford before the international break.
It is believed Palmer’s desire to play for England remains as strong as ever, with the fact that his state of fitness was checked out before Tuchel named his squad taken as a sign he remains in his thoughts.
Alonso confirmed England had made checks on Palmer, adding: “When a player is fully fit he is selectable. When he is not fit we give the national team the reasonable information to decide together. Sometimes it’s not good for the player.”
Chelsea’s boss said he has not spoken to Palmer about his England exclusion and has no doubts about his character, although the pair had talks about his recent sending off in the 2-0 home loss to Tottenham Hotspur.
He said: “We have not talked about England. We are focused on Chelsea things, how to help him, how he can become more and more influential. These are our topics to talk.
“We speak about Chelsea. We have enough on our plate. My impact area is my control area and what we talk about.
“I am very happy with his quality, with his attitude and the impact he is having with the rest of the team.”
The questions, however, remain.
Even before Palmer withdrew last time out, Tuchel had previously said he had a “point to prove” and needed “to step up” to “keep his shirt and justify the nomination”.
Is Tuchel convinced Palmer has the motivation to play for England? Does his “trust” lie elsewhere?
He certainly has options in the position Palmer would occupy, with Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham his world class “number 10” and another Chelsea player, Morgan Rogers, an outstanding alternative.
Morgan Gibbs-White, Eberechi Eze and now 19-year-old King, who has won his first England senior call-up, have been selected ahead of Palmer, with Everton’s Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall also given a glowing reference from Tuchel, despite not making the squad.