Chelsea have confirmed that N'Golo Kante has returned to the UK due to the knee injury he suffered at the end of last season.
The midfielder picked up the issue against Watford at the start of May and has yet to fully recover from the problem.
Kante was a major doubt for the Europa League final against Arsenal but started during the triumph in Baku, before then missing France's international games in June.
The ex-Leicester City man has yet to feature for the team in pre-season and he trained away from his teammates during the recent trip to Ireland.
Kante was part of Frank Lampard's 25-man squad for the pre-season tour of Japan but he wasn't included in the squad that lost 1-0 to Kawasaki Frontale on Friday.
The player had in fact trained with his teammates the day before during a couple of exercises, although he then worked alongside one of the team's coaching staff on his own for the remainder of the session.
The 28-year-old was absent once again at the club's training session in Saitama on Sunday morning and the club have since issued an update on the player.
"N’Golo Kante has travelled back to the UK to continue his rehabilitation for an injury connected to the knee problem he sustained at the end of last season," read a statement on the club's Twitter page.
Chelsea will have their fingers crossed regarding the player's fitness over the coming days as their opening league game against Manchester United is now only three weeks away.
