Chelsea face West Bromwich Albion in the Premier League on Saturday and manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that midfielder N’Golo Kante will not be available for this match.
Kante pulled out of the France squad during the international break due to a small hamstring injury and it looks like this weekend’s game has come too early for the midfielder.
Thankfully, Kante is the only Chelsea player who will not be available for selection since all the other first-team players have trained with the squad on Friday.
‘Everyone was training today and we had a good, high quality session,’ said Tuchel at his pre-match press conference.
‘Apart from N’Golo Kante, he wasn’t with the squad and he did some individual work. Everybody else was out on the pitch and are all available for tomorrow, which is good news
‘With N’Golo, we will have to be patient. Will he miss the Porto game? Yes, probably. He is doing individual training and tomorrow’s game comes too soon for him and so he can’t be with the squad.
‘After tomorrow’s game, we have just three days to prepare [for Porto]. He has a muscle injury, as we communicated with the national team, so my realistic approach is to think further ahead about Porto, maybe the second game against Porto he could be available for.’
‘Tomorrow we have Thiago available and everyone else in defence is fit. It’s the same with the goalkeepers. It’s very important to have this at this time of the season. We need everybody in top shape.’
Jorginho was another midfielder who had picked up a knee injury but he’s recovered at the perfect time and since N’Golo Kante is not available, the Italian will start in central midfield alongside Mateo Kovacic.
The likes of Tammy Abraham and Callum Hudson-Odoi were also recovering from knocks but they too are back to full fitness and there’s a big chance that both of them could feature in the starting line-up vs the Baggies.
