CONTE WAITING ON KANTE FITNESS CALL

ANTONIO CONTE says he will speak to N’Golo Kante to see whether he finally feels fit to play, before deciding whether to start him for Chelsea in tonight’s Champions League match away to Roma.

The 26-year-old hasn’t played since suffering a hamstring injury in France’s 1-0 win in Bulgaria on October 7, coinciding with an initial dip in the Premier League champions’ results.

While Kante was back in training before Saturday’s win away to Bournemouth, Conte didn’t feel the midfielder was ready then to return to action, and will now talk to him ahead of the match at the Stadio Olimpico to see if he’s in the right condition to start.

“About N’Golo Kante, Kante has trained with us,” the Italian said. “He trained also before the game against Bournemouth. I think it’s very important, in this moment, to speak with the player and then see his sensation. I was a player and you know very well that, after an injury, above all a muscular problem – a bad injury – it’s very important to listen to the player and what are his sensations and then make the best decision for him, for the team. For sure, tomorrow, we’ll try and make the best decision.”

Conte also said Danny Drinkwater looks fit again, but Victor Moses likely isn’t ready.

Chelsea have picked up form in the last few games without Kante, winning three in a row including a Carabao Cup victory over Everton, and Conte feels they have come through a “sensitive stage of the season”.

“It’s true that, before the Roma game, we had lost a couple of games and now we’ve won three in a row,” Conte said. “It’s important for us to overcome this sensitive stage of the season. But whenever you are playing seven games in 21 days, you don’t sort problems out overnight. You just have to try and do your best in every game to face this emergency. We’ve faced this situation since the beginning of the season.”