Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has confirmed N’Golo Kante is “pretty much” certain to be out for the rest of the campaign with a groin injury.
The French World Cup winner has already missed two large chunks of Chelsea’s disappointing season due to a hamstring injury and also fitness struggles.
Kante started in both of Chelsea’s two most recent games — the 3-1 defeat to Arsenal and also last Sunday’s victory over Bournemouth by the same scoreline.
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Now, though, Kante looks set to miss the rest of the season, after caretaker coach Lampard revealed the midfielder picked up a groin injury in training ahead of their home game against Nottingham Forest.
Lampard said: “We lost N’Golo in training yesterday. He felt something in his groin, so that’s probably a couple of weeks and we know what that means, pretty much. So we just have to keep going.”
Chelsea will almost certainly finish the campaign in the bottom half of the Premier League table, despite spending more than £600m on transfers this term.
Meanwhile, Kante grabbed an assist in the 3-1 win over the Cherries, which was Lampard’s first victory since returning to replace Graham Potter.
Matters got even worse for Lampard and Chelsea, as well, as Mateo Kovacic trudged off in the first half with an injury against Nottingham Forest.
And with the season already winding down, even a minor injury might be enough to rule Kovacic out for the rest of the season.
