Live

LIVE: OTB Breakfast

07:30 AM-10:00 AM

LIVE: OTB Breakfast
Advertisement
Soccer

Kante 50/50 for Europa League final

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri rates midfielder N'Golo Kante's chances of being fit for the Europ...



Kante 50/50 for Europa League...
Soccer

Kante 50/50 for Europa League final

Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri rates midfielder N'Golo Kante's chances of being fit for the Europa League final as 50-50.

The World Cup winning France midfielder sustained a knee injury in training at the weekend and had been expected to miss the decider against Arsenal in Baku tomorrow night.

Sarri admits he's desperate to have Kante available for the London derby.

"He had a little problem on Saturday, a very little problem with his knee. It’s not really a very serious injury.

"The problem is the timing because we had only four days to try to recover him. We are trying. At the moment we don’t know. We will try until the last moment. We will try tomorrow, but at the moment we don’t know.

"He is 50/50 at the moment, yesterday 60/40 for the no, today 50/50. He was a little bit better this morning.

"But we are in trouble in midfield. At the moment we have only three midfielders for three positions. N’Golo is really important for us. He is the only defensive midfielder we have. Without N’Golo it’s a problem for us."

Kante's international colleague Olivier Giroud looks set to lead the line for Chelsea against his former side.

Giroud is the competition's joint top scorer with 10 goals this season and Sarri feels he's earned the right to play tomorrow.

"I need to consider him, first of all. He has played very well in the Europa League and scored a lot of goals. In this competition Olivier was very important for us.

"I have to decide tomorrow, but I have to consider him I think."

The Chelsea coach has also revealed that star winger Eden Hazard sometimes gets bored in training.

“It is a pleasure during the match – sometimes during the week it is a problem!

“He has to try to become the best in Europe… during the training sometimes he is boring because for him everything is really very easy.”

Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!

Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.


Read more about

Chelsea Kante Ngolo Kante Sarri