L’Equipe are today reporting that N’Golo Kante will definitely miss the World Cup thanks to the hamstring injury picked up against Spurs in August.
It was the same source which reported yesterday on the setback that the midfielder had had which put his participation with France in doubt, so we’re inclined to believe them.
INFO L'ÉQUIPE. Blessé aux ischio-jambiers, le milieu de l'équipe de France N'Golo Kanté ne sera pas rétabli à temps pour disputer la Coupe du monde au Qatar (20 novembre – 18 décembre). https://t.co/MlpldV5o0W pic.twitter.com/yku7vLSbV8
— L'Équipe (@lequipe) October 14, 2022
The midfielder has yet to play a single game for new coach Graham Potter, who once again batted off questions in his press conference today about when Kante might return. He had been in full training with the group two weeks ago, and suspicions of a setback were first raised when he didn’t appear even as a substitute in either game in the last 7 days.
Kante is not one of those players with a big entourage which has channels to all sorts of media outlets, so we’re going to take this as close as we will get to unofficial confirmation, from France’s top football paper which presumably has some sources close to him.
If true, what a shame for the player, for Chelsea, and for the World Cup!
Alas, this just strengthens the argument for holding firm on contract negotiations. Kante has been wonderful and is still world class when healthy, but it would be foolish to offer him 3 years. If his heels are dug in then we should just sell him now while we can still recover part of our investment before he leaves for free.