England star goes incognito at League One match after withdrawing from squad

Stockport County fans may not have realised they were sat by a superstar on Saturday as Chelsea and England star Cole Palmer tried to remain undercover in the crowd.

The 22-year-old was in the stands at Edgeley Park to watch Stockport beat Wrexham 1-0 in League One in a big game at the top of the table.

The result has left Wrexham third, with Stockport just one point and one place behind them in the division.

Stockport’s star player, the on-loan Aston Villa forward Louie Barry, scored the only goal of the game as the Hatters try to make it back-to-back promotions having come up from League Two last season.

Palmer grew up in Wythenshawe, not far at all from Stockport, and was clearly not ready to have some time away from football during the international break.

The former Manchester City man was forced to withdraw from the England squad for the Nations League fixtures with Greece and Ireland due to injury, so he has some spare time on his hands.

He had been a doubt for Chelsea’s clash with Arsenal last weekend but ended up playing the full match.

Blues boss Enzo Maresca said of Palmer’s fitness after the 1-1 draw with the Gunners: ‘We didn’t take any risks. He was a doubt until the end.

‘He’s painful now but hopefully nothing important.’

Barry’s goal was one that Palmer would have been proud of as he curled in an effort from the edge of the box and Stockport boss Dave Challinor says it is typical of the man.

‘That’s a Louie Barry goal, he does that with very pleasing regularity from my perspective,’ said Challinor.

‘I go back to my first day at the football club when he came in and flipped one to his right foot and smashed it in that far side. And that’s his goal, his finish. He can go both ways and it causes defenders real problems. You might know he’s going to do it but stopping him is another matter.

‘Yeah, if you’re ever going to pick a Louie Barry goal, it would look like that.

‘We were a little bit deep early on and a bit pointless in our possession rather than purposeful for 10 or 15 minutes. Once Louie scored the goal, that 20 or 40 minutes was as good as we’ve been and we made a very good team struggle to deal with us. We played some really good stuff in the second half.’

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