N'Golo Kante and Christian Pulisic were both partly involved in the Chelsea training session that was overseen by under-pressure head coach Graham Potter this morning.
Chelsea have been without Kante since August. The France international suffered a hamstring injury in the 2-2 draw against Tottenham Hotspur that later required surgery. Kante's recovery has been handled very carefully by the Blues' medical team, with a return date of early March always targeted.
Pulisic, meanwhile, has been absent since picking up a knee injury in the defeat to Manchester City last month. The winger, whose contract expires at the end of next season, has been stepping up his comeback at Chelsea's training base over the past fortnight.
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"They [Kante and Pulisic] are making progress and joining in the warm-ups," Potter explained on Friday prior to his side's disappointing defeat to Tottenham Hotspur. "They will be more integrated next week. So that is good."
Those who played significant minutes in yesterday's 2-0 defeat in north London undertook a recovery session inside. The likes of Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella and Carney Chukwuemeka – none of whom were in the matchday squad – were all involved in the work done on the grass.
That Potter oversaw the session was no surprise. He has – for now – retained the support of the ownership despite Chelsea having won just two of their last 15 Premier League matches. It is form that has left the Blues ten points off the relegation zone after 24 matches.
"My focus is on the next match against Leeds," Potter said yesterday. "That is what I’m going to think about. We need to lift the mood, lift the spirit, and find a good feeling. Hopefully, we can get a nice game and three points because that is really important for us at this stage. We can’t look anything apart from that.”
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