Injury fears confirmed for 30-year-old Chelsea midfielder

  Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has confirmed midfielder N’Golo Kante aggravated an ankle injury during the Blues’ 1-1 draw with Liverpool las...

 

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel has confirmed midfielder N’Golo Kante aggravated an ankle injury during the Blues’ 1-1 draw with Liverpool last weekend, forcing the Frenchman to leave the pitch at half-time.

The 30-year-old star got in a tangle when attempting to recover the ball from Roberto Firmino and the two players hit the ground in an awkward fashion. The Blues man needed treatment after the incident and N’Golo was replaced by the Croatia international Mateo Kovacic at half time.

Thomas has now admitted that his player suffered an ankle injury in the challenge, a similar problem that meant he was not able to start in the victory against Arsenal last week.

“He is injured,” the German began. “He missed the Arsenal game because of some pain in the ankle and some inflammation, but it was nothing serious obviously because he was back in training and he started today.

“In winning the ball in this situation I think the opponent fell on his ankle and he twisted it again and he had immediately the same pain he had before the Arsenal game and he was lacking force to accelerate and we had to take him off.”

Kai Havertz had given the Blues the lead against the run of play, but Mohamed Salah’s equaliser and the red card changed the match completely. The west Londoners ultimately managed to secure a precious point on the road, and the stars will now take off for international duty.