N’Golo Kante joined other Chelsea stars to train at Cobham today as the Blues put the finishing touches to preparations for the club’s Champions League trip to France.
The Frenchman participated fully in today’s session, the first 15 minutes of which were open to the media, after missing the weekend win over Brighton.
While most of the squad took a little while to emerge from the depths of the indoors, the goalkeepers slaved away for the start of their session.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, Willy Caballero and Jamie Cumming looked no less enthused as they kept the ball up and dived to the floor in the torrential conditions.
Football.london report that among the first of the outfield players was Olivier Giroud. The striker did not make the squad against Brighton after suffering from illness but he appears to be back in training ahead of the clash with Lille.
Another member of the Blues squad hit by illness was Kurt Zouma and he also trained, while N’Golo Kante confirmed Frank Lampard’s comments after the win over the Seagulls, that he would be in contention to face the French opposition. The midfielder has had an ongoing problem with his hamstring that he has carried through from pre-season.
Lampard said at the weekend: “Yes, it’s an awareness. I didn’t want to take the risk. I spoke to N’Golo about it, he’s so important for us – we know that – but he’s had a difficult pre-season.
“It’s been difficult for us but mainly for him to get going because of the break up of his pre-season as his injury carried over from last year, so it wasn’t right to risk it today.
“He could have a chance for Lille.”
Of course, no Chelsea training session is free from the presence of youth following Lampard’s arrival and as well as the usual faces of Mason Mount, Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi were Billy Gilmour, Marc Guehi and Clinton Mola.
Antonio Rudiger, Emerson Palmieri and Ruben Loftus-Cheek were all once again missing as they continue their recoveries.
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