Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has revealed that N’Golo Kante has been skipping Chelsea training due to fears over the Premier League’s Project Restart and the Blues are ready to accept he might not be available when the season resumes
Chelsea accepts they may have to restart the Premier League season without N’Golo Kante.
The Frenchman was at the club’s Cobham training HQ on Thursday but only for his second coronavirus test of the week.
Kante skipped training on Wednesday because of his fears over the pandemic.
But Chelsea is putting no pressure on the World Cup winner, who is keeping in regular contact with boss Frank Lampard.
Kante has been granted compassionate leave and there is no date on which he is expected back.
It is believed he has concerns over the safety of rejoining his team-mates while the country remains in lockdown.
Chelsea is leaving it up to Kante to decide when he feels comfortable enough to come back – and it is not known when he will.
But it is understood that if the Premier League does return to action as planned next month, Chelsea is willing to do so without the 29-year-old.
Kante suffered a health scare two years ago when he fainted in front of his team-mates.
And although tests revealed no issues, his older brother Niama died of a heart attack and he lost his father when he was just 11 years old.
Kante has continued to train alone at home with the full blessing of Lampard and the club, and Chelsea has made a full range of medical advice available to him.
Blues midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek did return to training this week – and insists all those who did were convinced it was safe to do so.
Loftus-Cheek said: “This is the first stage of it and it needs to be safe but I feel like the routine they’ve shown us is safe so for us it’s good to go at the moment.
“We’ve been involved in the conversations and our opinions have been noted. What they’ve proposed to us with this first phase, everyone feels it’s safe to do.
“It’s important to take it to step by step with these things because of what’s going on in the world.
‘You have to do things properly but we feel like this phase one has been done properly so everyone is looking forward to getting going.”
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