Chelsea star N'Golo Kante has '50-50' chance of being fit for Europa League final, says Maurizio Sarri

Simon Johnson28 May 2019

Maurizio Sarri has confirmed that Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has only a 50-50 chance of facing Arsenal in the Europa League final on Wednesday.

Kante suffered a knee injury in training on Saturday and is in a race against time to prove his fitness for the clash in Baku.

It has left Chelsea in danger of having only three central midfielders to choose from for the three positions as things stand because Ruben Loftus-Cheek is sidelined with a ruptured Achilles tendon, while Danny Drinkwater isn’t involved and Ethan Ampadu is still working on his fitness.

When asked if he Kante will be available for selection, Sarri said: “I don't know. I think it's 50-50 at the moment.

"Yesterday, 60-40 for 'no'. Today 50-50. He was a little bit better this morning. But 50-50.

N'Golo Kante was involved in training as Chelsea prepared for the Europa League final on Wednesday.
PA

“Kante had a little problem on Saturday. A very little problem within his knee. The problem is the timing because we had only four days (to recover him). We are trying.

“It's not really a very serious injury. We have the problem of the three or four days to try and recover him.

“We will try to the last moment, so we will try tomorrow. But we don't know at the moment.”

As things stand Jorginho, Ross Barkley and Mateo Kovacic will be in central midfield, with the likes of academy star Conor Gallagher as back-up on the bench.

Sarri added: “We are in trouble with the midfielders. At the moment we have only three midfielders for three positions, so we are in trouble.

“For us, N'Golo is really very important. He is the only defensive midfielder that we have, so for us he is really very important.

“We are trying to recover him. We will try tomorrow morning. I hope to recover him because I know very well that, without N'Golo, for us it's a problem.”

Maurizio Sarri consults his assistant Gianfranco Zola.
REUTERS

Sarri will name his starting XI tomorrow and hasn’t guaranteed that striker Olivier Giroud will lead the line just yet.

Giroud is the joint-top scorer in the Europa League this term with 10 goals and Sarri has suggested the France international will be hard to ignore.

He said: “I need to consider him, first of all, I think. He played very well in the Europa League and scored a lot of goals. So, in this competition, Olivier was really very important for us.

In Pictures | Chelsea training | 22/05/2019

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"Of course I have to decide. I will decide tomorrow, but I have to consider him I think.”

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