Thomas Tuchel has confirmed Mateo Kovacic will return for Chelsea against Leicester City, and revealed how many minutes he is able to play on Saturday afternoon.
Kovacic has yet to feature for Chelsea this season in their opening three Premier League matches due to a knee problem sustained in pre-season.
The Croatian wasn’t risked by Tuchel until he showed no reaction in his knee. Kovacic returned to training this week and provided a positive update following his comeback to training.
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The 28-year-old admitted: "It has been tough to come back, but it’s very nice and I cannot wait to be back with the boys on the pitch. I am ready for what is coming.
"I hate it (being ruled out through injury). It was tough, but the injury gives you something to improve more on the other side, I improved in the gym a little bit.
"I did some extra work and I feel good now to start."
But whether he was available or not to play Leicester City was still in question. Now Tuchel has revealed the midfielder is fit and able to feature.
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However, it will be a limited cameo for Kovacic in Kante’s absence, with the Chelsea head coach adding: “Kova is back in the group and ready to play some 20 minutes.
“We miss him as a personality, his experience and his quality. It’s maybe 20 minutes at the moment.
"Was his first training week without reaction in the knee so we cannot rush things otherwise we will just sabotage our own plans with him.
“We need him long term. It’s good to have him back and as an option on the bench.”
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With Kovacic available from the bench, Jorginho, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Conor Gallagher as the three options in midfield for Tuchel on Saturday. It is likely Gallagher will get the nod after he started against Leeds last weekend.
How Chelsea cope without Kante remains a weekly problem for Tuchel, who said: “It’s difficult to replace him, he’s very unique. We were full of hope after pre-season because we built his pre-season very individual.
"He had a long pre-season, a good pre-season, felt good.
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“Since many years he felt very strong, getting enough rest and build-up to be the player he can be for us. We started with one game a week so the hopes were high that he can play consistently for us. If we build another system, I don’t know.
“We have trust in our players. It will maybe be the same system. We played many games, unfortunately, without him in the same structure. It will be slightly different because every player is a bit different. That is the challenge to adapt to this, use different players differently. To change completely because N’Golo is not there, I don’t think so.”
Topics: Mateo Kovacic, Chelsea, Thomas Tuchel, Premier League, Leicester City, Football
Matthew Debono