Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante has said he is feeling fine after playing his first game for four weeks. An ankle problem has plagued the Frenchman’s start to the season, but he came back into the starting line up against Liverpool yesterday.

The 28-year-old showed no signs of rust after scoring a special individual goal in the 2-1 defeat, and when asked how he felt after playing the full 90 minutes, Kante replied:

“I’m feeling better, I tried to recover for four weeks from my ankle injury and I was good to play,” he told Chelsea’s the 5th stand. I think my ankle is alright now.”

The Blues also had to deal with two players getting injured against the Reds with both Emerson and Andreas Christensen coming off in the first half. Manager Frank Lampard confirmed that Emerson suffered a recurrence of a thigh injury while Christensen had a knock:

“Emerson is a similar injury to what he had, which with a muscle it means you have come back too soon, and that is not a slight on him because everybody wants to play in this game. Christensen is a bang on the back of the knee which we will assess. First thought is it is not that bad.”

Lampard also confirmed that forward Tammy Abraham suffered a knock in the second half. The 21-year-old collided with Liverpool goalkeeper Adrian but the Chelsea boss says it isn’t serious:

“He was struggling a little bit at the end and again I think it’s what happens with Tammy. I think he’s had a fantastic start to the season, but now the levels are: can you get through games?”

Callum Hudson-Odoi (Achilles) and Reece James (ankle) are closing in on their comebacks for the first team and could play against Grimsby on Wednesday.

Antonio Rudiger (groin), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Achilles) and Marco van Ginkel (knee) are all long-term absentees.