Cole Palmer has a major problem – this England withdrawal could be his last

There is a wonderfully surreal, almost narcotic calm to Cole Palmer . He glides through games with the languid slouch of a teenager dragged down the garden centre on a Sunday afternoon, shrugging off defenders as if they were overpriced bags of compost.

For a glorious spell, Palmer was the coolest thing in English football - a walking tableau of shivering, cross-armed celebrations, playground-genius magic and untroubled nonchalance. Now, however, that chilling aura is threatening to freeze him out of the England national team .

On Monday, it was announced that the Chelsea star was withdrawing from the England squad due to a "small injury." On paper, it sounds entirely sensible - a cautionary measure in a punishing calendar. But in reality, a deeply troubling pattern is emerging.

Nearly two years into Thomas Tuchel's reign as Three Lions boss, Palmer remains less a pillar of the national side and more a distant, spectral myth. Tuchel, a manager whose tactical brain operates at the manic frequency of an industrial espresso machine, has barely laid eyes on Palmer in the flesh. With the 24-year-old's form and fitness wavering so unpredictably over the past 18 months, he remains an international ghost.

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And now, just as Palmer finally appeared to have forced his way back into the England manager's plans, he's withdrawing from the squad again. That is a terrible shame. It could also become a serious problem.

Palmer was one of the most startling omissions from England's World Cup squad in the summer. But how did the midfielder react to missing the pinnacle of global sport? With characteristic, unflappable indifference . He looked like he wasn't bothered, or at the very least, was unaffected. Admirable though that apathy might seem to some, in the ruthless, unforgiving universe of Thomas Tuchel, it is a cardinal sin.

Tuchel's ideal footballer is not a delicate artist who needs to be coaxed out of his shell. He is a hyper-intense, physical specimen forged in iron and adrenaline. The German preaches mentality constantly. He loves big, burly, unstoppable runners. He wants players who chew glass and treat an international gathering like a medieval siege. He wants the roaring, muscular dynamism of Jude Bellingham, or the relentless, bull-necked drive of Morgan Rogers. The No. 10 position in this England squad is a ruthless bloodbath of elite talent. It's no place for someone who gives the impression he wouldn't elbow his grandmother into a hedge to be there.

Palmer is one of the most naturally gifted footballers England has produced in decades. He's the sort of player who can make a football look like it has suddenly become slightly more obedient. On his day, he floats around the pitch with the irritating ease of a man who has wandered into the wrong five-a-side game and decided to win it anyway.