N'Golo Kante withdraws from France squad with hamstring injury

Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has withdrawn from the France squad as a result of a minor hamstring injury suffered in a World Cup qualifier against Ukraine earlier this week and will miss his country’s two remaining internationals over the next week.

Kante played 90 minutes for France against Ukraine, which ended in a 1-1 draw in Paris, with Chelsea teammate Olivier Giroud also in action for just over an hour. But the midfielder felt discomfort towards the end of the contest and tests have revealed a small injury problem.

2018 World Cup winner Kante, who had 45 senior caps to his name since his debut in 2016, will return to London on Friday and will play no further part for France this month. It means he now misses upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Kazakhstan and Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Chelsea are next in action on 3 April with a Premier League clash against West Brom. Kante has already missed a handful of games this season with hamstring trouble but it will be hoped that he recovers from this latest setback quickly, especially after returning to top form recently.

It has been a better international break so far for several other Chelsea players, with many putting in strong performances for their respective countries on Thursday night.

Mason Mount, Reece James and Ben Chilwell all started for England against San Marino at Wembley and all three Chelsea players registered a first half assists as the Three Lions raced into a 3-0 lead en-route to a comfortable opening 5-0 win over the minnows.

Elsewhere, Kai Havertz was on the scoresheet as Germany won 3-0 against Iceland, while Antonio Rudiger played the full 90 minutes and contributed towards the clean sheet. Timo Werner also came off the bench for the closing stages when the result was already wrapped up.

Andreas Christensen was also in good form for Denmark, helping his country keep a clean sheet in Israel to record a 2-0 win to get their World Cup qualifying campaign underway.

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