N’Golo Kanté sidelined with muscular injury | OneFootball

French midfielder N’Golo Kanté (32) has been ruled out for three weeks after suffering a muscular injury, Al-Ittihad have confirmed.

Kanté’s career has been blighted by injuries, especially in recent years. However, having left Chelsea to join Saudi Pro League side Al-Ittihad, Kanté had managed to find a rhythm, starting all the club’s matches so far this season, bar one. He has already played 1559 minutes of football this season, compared to just 685 in the entirety of the last campaign.

It seemed that Kanté had turned a corner, however, he was withdrawn from the last match after suffering a muscular injury. In an official statement, Al-Ittihad have revealed that the former Chelsea and Leicester City midfielder will be sidelined for three weeks.

Despite rediscovering his rhythm in recent weeks, Kanté has not earned a recall to the France squad. He hasn’t featured for Les Bleus since June 2022 and whilst Didier Deschamps has insisted that Kanté is not out of the picture, his move to the Gulf State does certainly look to have damaged his chances of representing Les Bleus  going forward.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle