Thomas Tuchel issues injury updates on Jorginho & N'Golo Kante

Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel says Jorginho will likely play through the pain barrier against Leeds United on Saturday, but the match will come too soon for N'Golo Kante.

The Blues have been dealing with a raft of injury problems in recent weeks, with the returns of Romelu Lukaku and Timo Werner tempered by the losses of Ben Chilwell, Trevoh Chalobah and Kante.

Chilwell suffered ACL damage in the Champions League victory over Juventus in November, while Kante twisted his knee in the same match. Chalobah hurt his hamstring in the Premier League win at Watford at the start of this month.

Longer-term absentee Mateo Kovacic had been on the verge of a comeback from a hamstring issue this week, only to test positive for Covid-19 a day after returning to training.

Meanwhile, Jorginho missed Chelsea's disappointing 3-3 draw with Zenit St Petersburg in Russia in midweek with back pain, but Tuchel revealed it is likely he will be fit for the visit of Marcelo Bielsa's side.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Leeds at Stamford Bridge, Tuchel said: "Trevoh Chalobah is still out, Kovacic is obviously out, N'Golo Kante out for tomorrow and Ben Chilwell too.

"Jorginho did the last two training sessions and will do what he did the last game, play through pain."

The German coach added that he was hopeful Kante would return to training next week.

"You cannot find a second N'Golo so of course we are worried," he continued."It is likely too long a break again and we hope that he comes back to team training on Tuesday."

Chelsea will look to recover from a run of poor recent results that has seen them surrender top spot in both the Premier League and their Champions League group, including a 3-2 defeat to West Ham last time out.

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