Chelsea midfielder N'Golo Kante is facing nearly a month on the sidelines with a muscular injury he picked up during the international break, his manager Antonio Conte said ahead of Saturday's Premier League trip to Crystal Palace.

The France international limped off clutching his hamstring during last week's 1-0 World Cup qualifying victory in Bulgaria and missed his country's next game against Belarus on Tuesday.

An initial scan suggested the 26-year-old would be out for up to 25 days, but Conte is hoping a second one will give him better news.

"For sure it's a muscular problem, a hamstring," Conte told a news conference on Friday. "This is a big loss for us. You know very well the importance of N'Golo Kante in our team. We don't have another player with the same characteristics.

"For this reason, we are going to do another scan after one week to understand the situation very well, and see if this scan is better than the scan before."