Kanté, Rüdiger in traveling Chelsea squad for Europa League final

After the news broke that N’Golo Kanté had recently missed training due to twisting his knee, we’ve now been given confirmation via the official Chelsea Fifth Stand app that he, together with the long-term injured Antonio Rüdiger, has at least traveled with the squad to Baku for the Europa League Final. Due to the Blues’ current injury crisis, any kind of positive news on this front is a welcome sight.

Kanté had previously missed the last few weeks of the Premier League season due to a hamstring injury he had sustained at the start of May. Weeks of ‘will he or won’t he’ have been agonizing from a Chelsea perspective and we can only hope that this is a good sign. Why Rüdiger has traveled I’m not quite sure of as recent surgery has definitely ruled him out.

The good news is definitely that Kanté “moved around freely” after driving himself to Cobham, according to a report by The Guardian’s Dominic Fifield. It seems that, while he might still miss out, the initial ‘doom and gloom’ news isn’t as bad as we first thought it to be. He did still sit out Chelsea’s final training session ahead of the flight, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything.

On a positive note, Chelsea have decided to include academy players George McEachran, Connor Gallager and Jamie Cumming in their squad as the Europa League Final allows a total of 12 substitutes to take place on the bench. Due to our current injury crisis, this offers the perfect opportunity for the teenagers to scent the air on the biggest of stages.

Let’s just hope that things turn out for the best and Kanté can miraculously play against Arsenal. Get well soon, N’golo!