Bad news for Chelsea after initial scans on N’Golo Kanté’s hamstring injury

Ballon d’Or nominee N’Golo Kanté has returned to Chelsea following the hamstring injury he picked up while playing for France over the weekend. After that match, France manager Didier Deschamps revealed that Kanté suffered the injury to the back of his leg (i.e. his hamstring) and that prognosis has apparently been confirmed by the initial scans conducted by the French national team’s medical staff. Goal’s French football correspondent Julien Quelen brings the sad tidings.

As per the tweet, Kanté’s injury is indeed a left hamstring tear, and while the severity is unspecified, Quelen puts the length of absence at “several weeks”. In his full report, the length is said to be “three weeks” in the “worst-case”, which really doesn’t sound that tragic at all, except it would basically translate to Kanté missing most, if not all of October, and probably through the end of the next international break in November.

With Danny Drinkwater probably ready to return, Chelsea wouldn’t be too light on numbers, but of course Kanté is basically irreplaceable. Chelsea have yet to confirm Kanté’s diagnosis — he’s supposedly set for scans and tests in the next couple days, with Conte expected to give an official update on Friday.

And so we wait and hope and neither this nor Morata’s hamstring injury prove to be season-destroying events. Here’s what awaits Chelsea between now and the last international break of the calendar year: