N’Golo Kante faces a race against time to recover from his latest injury setback in time to feature in the World Cup in Qatar next month.
The Frenchman has not featured for Chelsea since the second game of the Premier League season in which he picked up a muscle injury which saw him miss the start of Graham Potter’s tenure at Stamford Bridge.
Kante returned to training at the end of September and was tipped to return in the recent 2-0 win over AC Milan, only to aggravate his hamstring problem in the build-up to the game and return to the sidelines.
While his recovery has not been officially confirmed, L’Equipe claim that Kante faces at least another two weeks on the sidelines, which will see the midfielder miss the next five games across all competitions.
Even if Kante recovers as planned, he would then have just one game to prove his fitness before Didier Deschamps names his France World Cup squad on November 9 – Chelsea face Arsenal in the Premier League on November 6 before a Carabao Cup clash with Manchester City on the evening of Deschamps’ announcement.
With a number of injuries hitting the French team in recent months, it is clear that Deschamps will refuse to select any player whose fitness is in question, meaning Kante will be in a real rush to prove himself.
The 31-year-old has not played for his country since early June, missing Les Bleus’ last five games due to various injury concerns.
With both Kante and midfielder Paul Pogba injured, Deschamps gave opportunities to the likes of Aurelien Tchouameni, Eduardo Camavinga, Youssouf Fofana and Matteo Guendouzi, who combined for mixed results as France entered the World Cup with just one win. out of six games.
