Kanté suffered hamstring problem playing for France in Bulgaria
Chelsea are waiting to assess the severity of a hamstring injury sustained by N’Golo Kanté in France’s World Cup qualifying win in Bulgaria on Saturday but expect to be without the midfielder and Álvaro Morata for Saturday’s trip to Crystal Palace.
Kanté hobbled off in the 34th minute of the game in Sofia, which France won 1-0, and was withdrawn from Didier Deschamps’ squad for Tuesday’s final group game against Belarus. The midfielder, who has been nominated in France Football’s 30 contenders to win this year’s Ballon d’Or, hurt the hamstring in his left leg but has yet to return to Cobham, where he will assessed by Chelsea’s medical staff.
Six points separate Chelsea and Manchester City and Manchester United and they will be confident they can inflict the eighth straight defeat on Palace. The Eagles have yet to score this season in the league and Morata would have been eager to face a defence that has been leaking goals. Chelsea welcome Roma to Stamford Bridge in the third game of their Champions League campaign and the Blues have marked that match as the return date for their top scorer.
