N’Golo Kante trains ahead of Europa League final as Maurizio Sarri rates star ’50-50′ to make Europa League final vs Arsenal
N’GOLO KANTE trained on Tuesday as Chelsea boss Maurizio Sarri called his star man “50/50” to play in the Europa League final against Arsenal.
The Chelsea boss claimed the Frenchman, 28, made some progress overnight but will still be a game-time call for the big game in Baku.
Kante has been struggling with a knee injury for some time and could join Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Antonio Rudiger in missing the final.
When asked if Kante would be fit for the final, Sarri replied: “I don’t know.
“He had a little problem on Saturday, a very little problem with his knee. It’s not really a very serious injury.
“The problem is the timing because we had only four days to try to recover him. We are trying.
‘WE’RE IN TROUBLE’
“At the moment we don’t know. We will try until the last moment. We will try tomorrow, but at the moment we don’t know.
“He is 50-50 at the moment. Yesterday 60-40 for the no, today 50-50. He was a little bit better this morning.
“But we are in trouble in midfield. At the moment we have only three midfielders for three positions.
“N’Golo is really important for us. He is the only defensive midfielder we have. Without N’Golo it’s a problem for us.”
Meanwhile, Sarri has a big decision to make up front – over whether or not to start Europa League top scorer Olivier Giroud.
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On his tough call, the Italian added: “I need to consider [Giroud], first of all.
“He has played very well in the Europa League and scored a lot of goals. In this competition Olivier was very important for us.
“I have to decide tomorrow, but I have to consider him I think.”