Chelsea beat Eintracht in the Europa League semi-finals earlier this month and now they will face London rivals Arsenal in the final.
The final is scheduled to be played in Baku but up until now, it looked like N’Golo Kante might not be part of this high-profile encounter.
N’Golo Kante picked up a hamstring injury during Chelsea’s 3-0 win over Watford a couple of weeks ago and many suspected that the Frenchman had played his final game of the season.
N’Golo Kante had to be taken off within the first 10 minutes of the match but surprisingly Maurizio Sarri took most of the blame for the injury.
Sarri said: “The problem is with his hamstring. But I think that I made a mistake because, probably, today he had to rest.
“Sometimes it’s very difficult to put on the bench a player so important like (Eden) Hazard, like Kante, but you have to do it.
Otherwise, you risk, and I have to say that I made a mistake.”
The absence of N’Golo Kante would have been a huge blow for Chelsea given that the Frenchman along with Jorginho have featured heavily in the Blues midfield this season.
Now though, reports are suggesting that the World Cup winner might be fit in time to play against Arsenal in the Europa League final.
Simon Johnson of the Standard has tweeted that N’Golo Kante is making a speedy recovery.
Johnson tweeted: “one bit of positive news for cfc is Kante looks increasingly likely to recover from a hamstring injury in time to face afc in the Europa League final.”
While it is still not certain whether N’Golo Kante will be fit to play in the first XI or not but with around two weeks still to go, these are certainly positive signs for Sarri.
In case, the Frenchman remains unavailable then surely both Kovacic and Ross Barkley will start in midfield alongside Jorginho.
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