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N'Golo Kante has left France's camp to return to club side Chelsea after suffering a muscle tear and will miss Les Bleus' clash with Belarus as a result. Hooked after 34 minutes in France's match against Bulgaria on Saturday, the reigning Premier League Player of the Season had been concerned by a potential issue in his leg, according to Les Bleus coach Didier Deschamps. The defensive midfielder left the rest of Deschamps' squad on Monday after a scan revealed he had indeed suffered a tear in his left thigh, with the worst-case scenario looking like the former Leicester man will be out for three weeks. Kante, who has not missed a match with Chelsea so far this season, will likely be forced to sit out Premier Leaguer clashes versus Crystal Palace, Watford and Bournemouth, as well as a Champions League match-up against Roma and a Carabao Cup fixture at home to Everton. Should the 26-year-old make it back after three weeks, he will face a race aga...

Iceland have secured a spot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, becoming the smallest nation by population to ever qualify for the showpiece event. Gylfi Sigurdsson and Johann Berg Gudmundsson scored as Iceland earned a 2-0 victory against Kosovo on Monday, giving the team a record of seven wins, one draw and two defeats — two points clear of Croatia for the top spot in Group I of UEFA World Cup qualifying. With some 335,000 residents, Iceland easily bested Trinidad & Tobago's population of 1.3 million in 2006 to become the smallest nation to secure passage to the World Cup finals. Northern Ireland, who last qualified in 1982 with a population of 1.5m, Slovenia (2002, just under 2m) and Kuwait (1982, 2m) complete the top five. Incredibly, the island nation has just 20,000 registered footballers, male and female, making the nation one of the smallest playing pools on the planet. But Iceland also boasts a UEFA-qualified coach per 500 inabitants, compar...

Cristiano Ronaldo  and  Lionel Messi   lead an illustrious list of 30 players nominated for the 2017 Ballon d'Or   award. The full list of top footballers was revealed across Monday by organisers France Football , with Champions League and La Liga winners Real Madrid dominating with seven nominees. Following unprecedented back-to-back Champions League wins, Real Madrid star Ronaldo is joined on the roster by attackers Karim Benzema and Isco , defenders Sergio Ramos and Marcelo , and midfielders Toni Kroos and  Luka Modric . Neymar has been recognised following an eventful year that has seen the Brazil star impress for both his national team and Barcelona, before his world-record summer transfer to Paris Saint-Germain. Former team-mate Luis Suarez , meanwhile, was one of Barca's key men last term, scoring 37 goals in all competitions. Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann was one of the final three in the 2016 Ballon d'O...