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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Sport
Chris Doyle

Man City and Chelsea's likely line-ups for Champions League final amid threat of injuries

Manchester City and Chelsea have key players fighting to be fit for the Champions League final, but both sides almost have a clean bill of health heading into the showdown.

N'Golo Kante and Ilkay Gundogan have been nursing injuries but their respective managers are hopeful of them regaining full fitness for Saturday night.

City midfielder Gundogan opened the scoring against Brighton in their penultimate Premier League match after just two minutes but saw his involvement ended prematurely as he had to be replaced by Fernandinho early in the second half as he picked up a knock.

The German was able to walk off the field himself which came as a relief to the City coaching staff as he was then an unused substitute in the win against Everton on Sunday.

Ilkay Gundogan picked up an injury against Brighton (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

How should Manchester City and Chelsea line-up for the Champions League Final? Comment below .

Kante also missed the final day of the season as the Frenchman was ruled out of the defeat to Aston Villa where Chelsea secured a top-four finish thanks to Spurs' win over Leicester City.

But Thomas Tuchel revealed he returned to training on Wednesday and should be available for the final in Porto.

He said: "With N'Golo nothing has changed. I think about changing my tactics now and stop asking about N'Golo.

"I'll just put him on the pitch in Wednesday training and don't ask anymore. If there are any problems we will just put him in training and put him on the pitch when the game starts on Saturday."

Edouard Mendy also missed the defeat at Villa Park but also returned to training along with Kante as the keeper looks to recover in time.

And the German boss says the signs are promising, but he will need to assess him before kick-off to see if he has shrugged off the problem.

He added: "He has made a huge improvement in his management of pain and so we need further updates on Wednesday. We hope to have him back then."

Thomas Tuchel is hopeful N'Golo Kante will recover from his injury in time (Getty Images)

But for the most part, both sides do not have any major injury concerns and both managers will have some difficult decisions with their team selection.

Here's how both will likely line-up for the Champions League Final.

Manchester City likely XI: Ederson, Cancelo, Stones, Dias, Walker, Fernandinho, Gundogan, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Foden.

Chelsea likely XI : Mendy, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Thiago Silva, Christensen, Chilwell, Kante, Jorginho, Pulisic, Mount, Werner.

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