Chelsea have been handed a huge boost with N’Golo Kante returning to full training.
The reigning PFA Player of the Year has missed the last three weeks with a hamstring injury he picked up on international duty with France in early October.
However, Kante, 26, trained with Chelsea’s first team in London on Monday before the team head to AS Roma to play in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
After missing five games for Chelsea — a defeat to Crystal Palace, draw with Roma, plus three narrow victories with plenty of shaky defensive displays — Kante’s return would obviously be a huge boost for Antonio Conte.
The Italian manager told the media over the weekend that Kante could be ready to face Roma in a massive UCL clash.
“I hope so. He could be ready. I know very well the importance of this player. I want to be sure he is ready. I hope to have him in this game, but I prefer to not take this type of risk. If he is ready, he plays,” Conte said.
This is a big week in Chelsea’s season and will go a long way to deciding if they will be challenging for both the UCL and Premier League titles.
Sitting top of UCL Group C on 7 points, a win in Rome would all but secure Chelsea’s passage into the last 16 of the Champions League. Then on Sunday they face Manchester United and their former manager Jose Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, with the chance to move just one point behind United if they win.
Kante, who had such a huge impact last season in their title-winning campaign after arriving from Leicester City, is key to their success and although Tiemoue Bakayoko has stepped in to deliver a few goals as well as his battling qualities in recent weeks, no player on the planet right now can control an engine room like Kante.
