Kanté doubt after ‘another small injury’; Rüdiger, Willian set for substitute duty against Liverpool

Savior of Chelsea, football, and all good things in life, N’Golo Kanté, first of his name, has just two 20-minute substitute appearances to his name this summer, one in the final match of preseason and the other in the first game of the Premier League season, this past Sunday. While Kanté could do little to change the 4-0 scoreline in favor of the home side at Old Trafford, it had given us some hope that he was finally over the knee injury that had kept him since the Europa League final in May.

Unfortunately, it sounds like he will have to take it slow still, as he’s felling the after-effects of Sunday’s efforts — and hopefully that’s all that this is and now something more.

“The selection of N’Golo on the bench at United was purely because he was coming back from injury and missed pre-season, so he wasn’t ready [to start]. I’m very aware of how important he is for us. He picked up a small injury in that game so we are assessing that for tomorrow. I will speak to him today and make a decision on that with him.”

Chelsea had been very careful and very slow in bringing Kanté back, so hopefully this new injury is nothing actually serious. Kanté did take part in Tuesday’s training in some capacity.

In better news, center back Antonio Rüdiger and new No.10 Willian are moving in the positive direction in their recoveries, and while they are not quite fully match fit yet, they should be fit enough for the bench tomorrow night against Liverpool in the Super Cup.

Willian and Rüdiger are here and they are in different stages. Willian is not far from fit, [but] to put him in a high intensity match is tough. He will be working through this week on fitness. Tomorrow he will be on the bench. Similarly with Rüdiger.”

-Frank Lampard; source: ESPN

Let’s just get through this thing without any more bad injury news, shall we?