N’Golo Kanté picks up hamstring injury after playing for France, returns to Chelsea

I could say I told you so, but that unfortunately wouldn’t change anything, and it wouldn’t even make me feel better personally, either.

After playing all 90 minutes in France’s 1-1 draw against Ukraine on Wednesday, having put in superhuman effort the week prior against Atlético Madrid and gotten a brief, late runout over the weekend against Sheffield United, N’Golo Kanté has picked up a hamstring injury and has returned to Chelsea for further diagnosis and treatment. The French Football Federation confirmed the news on Thursday evening.

According to the Athletic, Kanté “felt a small pain in his hamstring” during the match, but went on to finish the game. Scans the following day revealed “a minor injury in his left thigh”.

Except of course there is no such thing as a “minor” hamstring injury. There are only annoying hamstring injuries, which last for weeks, and extra-annoying hamstring injuries, which last for months — maybe not consecutively, but soft tissue injuries like hamstring strains are notorious for recurring and not healing properly, especially when players push themselves or get pushed into action, both of which scenarios have played out repeatedly with Kanté over the past two years.

And now it’s happened again.

International breaks are the worst, part six million and counting.