Chelsea beat Leicester City in the Premier League on Tuesday but this win might have come at the cost of N’Golo Kante picking up an injury.
The Blues won the match 2-1 and thanks to these three points, Thomas Tuchel’s side should now be able to secure a top-four finish this season. But even though N’Golo Kante started this match but the French international could only only manage 32 minutes on the pitch, following which he had to be replaced by Mateo Kovacic.
Immediately after the substitution, there were concerns over Kante’s fitness and after the game, manager Thomas Tuchel revealed that the midfielder was on the verge of picking up a hamstring injury which is why they immediately chose to take him off.
The manager told the press after the match: ‘I hope that N’Golo is not injured. He told me he went off before an injury.
‘He felt his hamstring and he was worried that he would get injured if he continued playing, so we put Kova in, which was also a huge risk, because he was only on the bench for 20 minutes when we had planned for 60 minutes before bringing him on.
‘So we took some risks, but it was the moment to take risks. It was a game of the highest importance at the end of the season and I’m happy that it worked out.
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‘Hopefully N’Golo will come back. We are a different team with and without N’Golo, but we compensated very well today.’
If the medical staff’s and the player’s judgements are correct then N’Golo Kante might just escaped a hamstring injury which would have ruled him out of the Champions League final against Manchester City.
But, truth be told, the danger is not over yet since the extension of the problem will only be known in the coming days and there’s still a really big chance that he is ruled out of the final.
Thankfully, Mateo Kovacic has returned back to full fitness so he can slot right into central midfield alongside Jorginho. But the Croatian midfielder can never have the same sort of impact with Kante has in defensive positions.
Manchester City are going to come onto Chelsea with all their might so Tuchel will require someone like N’Golo Kante to break up play in the middle of the pitch and also provide an extra layer of cover to his defenders.
