Maurizio Sarri has delivered bad news on the severity of the injury picked up by N'Golo Kante in the 3-0 win over Watford - revealing he expects him to miss the final two games of the season.
The Frenchman was forced off after just eight minutes of the tie after suffering a hamstring injury at Stamford Bridge and his absence was felt for the rest of the first half as Watford dominated the game.
But second half goals from his replacement Ruben Loftus-Cheek, David Luiz and Gonzalo Higuain meant that the Blues picked up all three points and went into third in the Premier League.
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However, there is bad news for Kante as Sarri revealed in his post match press conference that he expects Kante to miss the Europa League semi final second leg against Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday and the final game of the season against Leicester City, although he hopes to have him back for a possible Europa League final should the side make it through.
Sarri also took responsibility for the injury, admitting he should have rested Kante after Thursday night's 1-1 draw with Frankfurt.
He said: "I don't know. The problem is with his hamstring. But I think that I made a mistake because, probably, today he had to rest.
"Sometimes it's very difficult to put on the bench a player so important like Hazard, like Kante, but you have to do it. Otherwise you risk, and I have to say that I made a mistake.
"We have to wait until tomorrow morning, I think, but I think it's very difficult to recover him for the next two matches. But we want to play in the final, so he's lucky.
"We have to try and recover him for the final in case (we get there).”
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