Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has revealed that he is optimistic that midfielder N'Golo Kanté did not suffer a serious hamstring injury in Saturday's 3-0 win over Watford.
The Frenchman started the game but was forced off in the 78th minute after picking up the injury, limping off the field to be replaced by young Billy Gilmour.
Gilmour's introduction meant Jorginho spent another game glued to the bench, which has only intensified rumours of a potential bust-up between the Italian and Lampard, but the boss insisted (via football.london) that Jorginho still has a future at the club.
"Jorginho is in my plans and with N'Golo Kanté, he got a small hamstring that we'll scan [on Sunday] to see how bad it is," Lampard said. "We hope it's small, that's what I've been told so far but after the scan tomorrow we'll know. I'm guessing it will be a problem for Palace on Tuesday."
With Kanté expected to be out for the Crystal Palace game and Mateo Kovačić fighting his own Achilles injury, Jorginho could finally see his first minutes since football's restart when Chelsea travel to Selhurst Park.
19-year-old Gilmour is the only other midfielder comfortable at the base of Lampard's midfield, and given the Scot's struggles in his last two outings, the boss may opt to give Jorginho the nod instead.
The injury to Kanté was the only sour note on what was a confident performance from Chelsea, who reclaimed their spot in the top four thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud, Willian and Ross Barkley.
"I’m pleased with the team performance," Lampard added (via the club's official website). "It was solid, very strong defensively as well. We knew there’d be some longer balls, we knew set pieces would be an issue, but we dealt with them well.
"I think every game’s going to be pressure now. At West Ham there was pressure because we knew we could go third. It’s a different kind of pressure but it’s still the same. It’s how you focus on the game and the job in hand, we cannot get too caught up with what everyone else does at the moment and we did that well.
"There was no nonsense, the mentality was good, we started bright and carried on and got the small details of the game right at both ends of the pitch, which I was pleased with."
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Source: 90min
