Chelsea manager Frank Lampard is confident N'Golo Kante will recover from his hamstring injury in time for Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United but will not face Norwich City tonight.
Kante has missed Chelsea’s last two games and he has been ruled out of Tuesday’s home game.
“He is not fit for Norwich,” said Lampard. “But he has a chance for the semi-final.”
Without Kante, Chelsea’s hopes of securing Champions League qualification suffered a blow when they lost 3-0 at Sheffield United on Saturday.
Manchester City’s successful appeal against their European ban means fifth place is no longer good enough for a Champions League place next season.
The Blues remain in third place after Leicester lost 4-1 at Bournemouth but Manchester United could leapfrog them on Monday when they play Southampton.
Norwich were relegated at the weekend but Lampard said: “We have to treat them with utmost respect.
"Wounded animal or whatever you want to call it, but they have quality players who have played very well in a lot of games this season where they can count themselves unfortunate not to get results. We will expecting a very tough game.”
Defender Andreas Christensen was forced off with an injury against Sheffield United but he is fit to face Norwich, while Olivier Giroud and Jorginho start as well.
Chelsea XI: Arrizabalaga, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Zouma, Alonso, Loftus-Cheek, Jorginho, Kovacic, Willian, Giroud, Pulisic
Subs: Christensen, Barkley, Abraham, Pedro, Caballero, Mount, Hudson-Odoi, James, Tomori
Norwich XI: Krul, Aarons, Godfrey, Klose, Lewis, Tettey, Hernandez, McLean, Rupp, Cantwell, Drmic
Subs: Vrancic, Emi, Stiepermann, Trybull, Pukki, McGovern, Idah, Thomas, Martin
