Frank Lampard admitted that N’Golo Kante’s absence from the Wolves contest on Saturday was just a precautionary measure following the midfielder’s return from a long-term injury layoff.
Kante has been out for most of the season with a hamstring injury he picked up last August and the France international made his long-awaited return to Chelsea’s starting line-up against Liverpool earlier this week.
He was withdrawn after the hour mark with Chelsea looking to manage his minutes and with the former Leicester City man sitting out the game against Wolves, Lampard told BBC ( via The Express) that the decision was to protect the player’s fitness.
“One of the challenging things in coming in so quickly is to get up to speed with the medical and sports science.
“With the amount of games we’ve got coming up over the next two weeks – there’s no worries with N’Golo.
“We’re fine with him, we’re managing him through. He’s been out for a long time so we have a way of managing him.
“I was aware of that when I was at the club before and a couple of other selection issues. We’ve got some small concerns so we have to protect a couple of the players in the squad.”
Kante’s return to the Stamford Bridge fold has been greeted by delight with the Frenchman providing that extra impetus to the midfield for his side which has been lacking this season.
Chelsea sit 11th in the Premier League table and need to have results going their way to keep any hope of securing European football next season alive.
