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Football London
Football London
Sport
Rob Guest

Picture special: N'Golo Kante makes his return as Chelsea train ahead of Reading friendly

Chelsea return to action on Sunday as they face Reading in a pre-season friendly at the Madejski Stadium.

Starting off their pre-season friendlies with two games in Ireland against Bohemians and St Patrick's Athletic, the Blues then travelled to Japan to play Kawasaki Frontale and Barcelona.

Unfortunately losing the first game 1-0 following a late header, the Europa League winners bounced back in style as they sealed a 2-1 win over the Spanish giants courtesy of goals from Tammy Abraham and Ross Barkley.

New head coach Frank Lampard has shuffled his pack for all four pre-season games so far and he will more than likely do the same against the Championship side.

That could see Olivier Giroud or Michy Batshuayi come in upfront, while the likes of Danny Drinkwater and Tiemoue Bakayoko will be hoping for a bit more time on the pitch after playing the last 20 minutes against Barca.

Most impressive Chelsea stars vs Barcelona

Chelsea were back on the training pitch at Cobham on Friday and a familiar face was back training alongside his teammates.

N'Golo Kante, who was sent home from the tour of Japan by Lampard to continue his rehabilitation from the knee injury he picked up back in May, has trained away from the squad for the majority of pre-season so far but he was seen jogging alongside the rest of the team at the club's training base.

With the game against Reading to come too soon for him, Lampard will be hoping the World Cup winner is fit and firing for the league opener against Manchester United on Sunday, August 11.

Chelsea face two more friendlies after the game against Reading as they fly to both Austria and Germany.

Red Bull Salzburg are first up in Austria on Wednesday evening, with a trip to Germany next Saturday to face Bundesliga side Borussia Monchengladbach completing their pre-season games.

Take a look at our gallery above to see the Blues training for their last pre-season game in the UK ahead of the new 2019/20 Premier League campaign.

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