‘Green light’ for Kante to start for Chelsea in semi-final

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Thomas Tuchel says N’Golo Kante has been passed it to start for Chelsea in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City.

Kante started against Porto in midweek because Matteo Kovacic was sidelined after picking up a hamstring injury in training.


Kovacic is also unavailable this weekend, as is Andreas Christensen, who is still nursing a knock.

But Kante, whose fitness needs to be carefully managed because of injury problems the Frenchman has had in the past couple of seasons, is set to start against Pep Guardiola’s side.

Kante has had three days to recuperate since the Porto game and Blues boss Tuchel is ready to call upon him again.

Tuchel said: “We have the green light for N’Golo because we had three games in between which for him makes a huge difference.

“Matteo is already feeling better but is unfortunately still out and Andreas Christensen is out and cannot be in the squad.”