N’Golo Kante has returned to the United Kingdom after complications arose from an injury he sustained earlier this year.
The French international midfielder flew back to London immediately for treatment on the knee injury that he sustained at the end of the last season. He suffered the knee injury when the Blues played against Watford in May; a match Chelsea won 2-0. During that time, Chelsea’s previous manager, Maurizio Sarri, said that it was a mistake to have Kante on the field. Sarri lamented that he should have rested the midfielder instead.
A spokesperson for Chelsea said, “N’Golo Kante has travelled back to the UK to continue his rehabilitation for an injury connected to the knee problem he sustained at the end of last season.”
Chelsea’s new boss, Frank Lampard, had expected his player to have recovered in time for at least for one match on their Japan tour, and to be 100 percent ready for the Premier League 2019/2020 season. The Premier League is set to start in three weeks’ time.
However, those hopes are in real peril and could be a big blow to Lampard’s plan as Kante needs to continue his rehabilitation.
He was part of the squad that went to Japan for Chelsea’s pre-season tour but did not play against Japan’s Kawasaki Frontale in Yokohama, Japan. Chelsea lost 1-0 to the Japanese side. The loss was Lampard’s first as Chelsea’s boss. Lampard was still optimistic despite the loss and saw lost of potential in his teams’ performance.
“I thought they gave everything in strong humidity,” Lampard said. “Some good individual performances, some people finding their fitness and form. The normal things in pre-season that take a bit of time, which is probably being clinical in front of goal, which we were not. But that comes and some small details, which we will work on. So I have no fears, I was happy with big parts of the performance.”
Kante was expected to play against Barcelona in Saitama but he flew back to London and is expected to continue with his rehabilitation.
With the injury, Lampard may have to dig deeper and hope that Kante’s condition will improve in three weeks’ time.
