Less than a day after the latest gloomy reports about how N’Golo Kanté may miss the rest of the season over coronavirus health concerns for himself and his family, the 29-year-old midfielder was spotted at Cobham, training with the rest of the group.
The news was broken by the Telegraph, who are on a rather impressive streak of breaking Chelsea news (including the Timo Werner transfer), and later confirmed by the official Chelsea website as well as some of the pictures you can see above. Kanté had been exercising on his own for the last few weeks after opting out of training and given leave by the club, who had been fully supportive of his decision.
According to the report, Kanté had already participated in a session on Monday in fact, before joining in fully again today (Tuesday). While it’s not expected that he will be fit enough for the Aston Villa match in 12 days, once he catches up to the squad in terms of fitness, he should be available for selection once again.
It’s unclear what changed Kanté’s mind about participating — only 1 new case has been identified in the last three rounds of COVID-19 testing by the Premier League — but it’s certainly lovely to see him back and smiling.
Welcome back, N’Golo!
Exclusive: N'Golo Kante returns to full contact training with Chelsea #cfc https://t.co/SuJ5ceMsUc
— Matt Law (@Matt_Law_DT) June 9, 2020