Chelsea boss Frank Lampard insisted he had no option to rotate his midfielders in the EFL Cup as N’Golo Kante nears a return.
Chelsea lost 2-1 after a stunning Marcus Rashford free-kick knocked them out of the Carabao Cup, with Lampard again starting both Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic.
Defeat brought Chelsea’s seven-match winning streak to an end, but Lampard hopes for a boost with the return to training of N’Golo Kante.
The France World Cup winner has endured an injury-hit start to the season and has not figured for almost a month.
“He is hopefully going to join in training in the next two or three days,” said Lampard. “Hopefully he will be back before the international break.
‘I would have liked to have given Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic a rest because of the work they are putting in. I couldn’t because of N’Golo, Ross (Barkley), and Ruben (Loftus-Cheek) is long term.
“I couldn’t make those changes I wanted to but it is what it is I suppose.”
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