has confirmed N’Golo Kante will be absent for at least another four weeks and his facing an increasingly difficult challenge to replace a ‘unique’ player.
The 31-year-old picked up a hamstring strain during the 2-2 draw against Tottenham earlier this month and subsequently missed last weekend’s defeat against Leeds.
Without their midfield linchpin, were outrun and unable to cope with a frenetic pace set by Jesse Marsch’s enthusiastic side.
Kante will miss tomorrow’s game against his former club Leicester and is unlikely to be seen until after the international break at the end of September at the earliest.
‘For N’Golo it’s difficult to replace him, he’s unique,’ said Tuchel at his pre-match press conference.
‘We were full of hope after the pre-season because we built his pre-season very individually and he had a long pre-season.
‘He felt good since many years he felt very very strong that he’d had a enough rest to be the player that he can be for us.
‘We started with one game every week so the hopes were very high that he could play consistently for us.’
Despite the challenge of finding a solution to a Kante-less midfield, Tuchel insists he is unlikely to tinker with the system which has brought him, in the main, success during his Stamford Bridge tenure.
‘If we build another system I don’t know. We have trust in our playrs and it will be in the same system we played unfortunately many games without him.
‘The structure will slightly different because every player is a bit different and that is thent he challenge to adapt to this and use different players differently but to change completely because N’Golo isn’t there I don’t think so.’
Tuchel will at least be boosted by the return of Mateo Kovacic but the Chelsea boss revealed the Croatia international isn’t yet ready to start.
He said: ‘He’s back in the group. N’Golo is the only one that did not train now this week. So everybody is back in training. Kova is back in the group and ready to play some 20 minutes [against Leicester].
‘We miss him as a personality, his experience and his quality. It’s maybe 20 minutes at the moment.
‘Was his first training week without reaction in the knee so we cannot rush things otherwise we will just sabotage our own plans with him. We need him long term. It’s good to have him back and as an option on the bench.’
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