Sport: Didier Deschamps confirms N’Golo Kante thigh injury during France clash

Kante was able to walk off the pitch, though was clutching his left hamstring (Picture: AFP)

Didier Deschamps has confirmed that Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante injured his thigh in France’s win over Bulgaria and will definitely miss their crunch clash against Belarus on Tuesday.

The former Leicester man was picked to start on Saturday night, but was forced to limp off clutching his hamstring in the 34th minute, replaced by PSG’s Adrien Rabiot.

And now Deschamps has confirmed that the injury is bad enough to rule him out of their next World Cup qualifier, throwing his participation for Chelsea at the weekend against Crystal Palace into doubt.

Kante is now a major doubt to face Crystal Palace in the Premier League (Picture: Getty)

‘It’s a muscular problem behind the thigh,’ Deschamps explained to reporters after the match. ‘It is fixed for Tuesday.’

France were 1-0 up and looking comfortable before Kante was taken off, and Deschamps admits his withdrawal affected Les Blues somewhat.

Kante’s night got off to a bad start as he was handed a giant mascot (Picture: Sky Sports)

He continued: ‘Kante and Rabiot pretty much swapped. You need balance. Kante has a very important role.

'Rabiot can play that role, but the output of N’Golo may have destabilised the team – though that doesn’t take anything away from Adrien.’

The injury compounded a miserable night for Kante individually, who became the butt of the joke when he was given a rather large mascot who obscured most of his face when the anthems were being sung.

For Chelsea, they now could be without both Kante and Morata when they take on Palace – and beyond that match too – with Tiemoue Bakayoko and Cesc Fabregas likely to start.