Chelsea star N'Golo Kante faces a huge few months in his Blues career with the Frenchman continuing his recovery from injury while also locked in contract extension talks with the club. The 31-year-old will see his current deal in west London expire at the end of the season and despite not featuring for Chelsea since August 14, positive talks are ongoing over him extending his stay at the club.
The two-time Premier League winner's last Chelsea appearance came in the 2-2 draw with Tottenham on the second day of the Premier League season, throwing into doubt his future at the club, however, football.london understands Kante’s desire is to remain in London. Initially, his recovery timeline from that injury looked short, but it was confirmed on October he would have to undergo hamstring surgery to repair the damage.
Ahead of Chelsea's Premier League return on Boxing Day, Graham Potter offered a rough estimate on when Kante would be back. "He's a while [away]. He'll be end of February, start of March." Just a few weeks later the Chelsea boss then revealed a major update on his rehabilitation stating that he had started training again but on his own, with a plan in place to see him hopefully return against Tottenham, the reverse fixture of his initial injury, on February 26.
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Despite his absence from first-team action, Kante has been continually and heavily discussed in recent months with his immediate future a trending topic. Initially, no talks were in place for an extension for him or Jorginho, who also saw his deal expire in the summer, but both were then presented with provisional contract extensions.
Any movement on a new deal for Jorginho was stopped dead in its tracks once Arsenal expressed an interest in signing him in January. A £12million deal was subsequently agreed between the two clubs. Talks are said to still be ongoing for Kante, with Chelsea increasingly growing in confidence an agreement can be reached, as football.london understands.
A new club has since joined Arsenal in registering an interest in Kante with Mundo Deportivo reporting that Atletico Madrid are eyeing up a move in the summer if he does not sign a new contract. It is claimed that Diego Simeone's side have already reached out to the player's representatives to gauge whether he would be open to making the move to the Spanish capital.
CBS' Ben Jacobs has now offered a new update on Kante debunking the claim that an offer was made from the Middle East and that both parties are in agreement over what they want.
“Talks with N’Golo Kante are positive. Chelsea really want to keep him. Although plenty of interest in Kante from elsewhere, I can confirm there’s no truth Al-Nassr have already made him a lucrative offer. Kante’s priority is to stay in London and at Chelsea.”
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