Chelsea's African pillars to carry the team in the Champions League final

We are two days away from the biggest game of the year in European club football.

Clash of two English clubs, one have one Champions League trophy in their cabinets, the others are in the pursuit of their first. Chelsea vs Manchester City at Dragao Stadium in Porto.

Immensely important parts of Chelsea's journey are two players who have a question mark next to their names due to injury - N'Golo Kante and Edouard Mendy. And some goods news appeared at Stamford Bridge and at their training complex at Cobham.

The goalkeeper and midfielder had been injury concerns going into Saturday's clash but now look set to be fit to play.

N'Golo Kante, the quiet and unassuming Malian superstar

Mendy hurt his ribs in the final fixture of the season at Aston Villa while Kante had been struggling with a hamstring problem, which he picked up in the league game with Leicester.

Since his summer arrival Mendy has been the No 1 goalie at Stamford Bridge - when speaking to the press earlier this weekend Chelsea's German tactician Thomas Tuchel was optimistic and confident that the Senegalese would be available to start.

'We hope to have him back in training on Wednesday,' said Tuchel. 'We had a huge improvement in the management of pain. We need a further update on Wednesday.

'Edou will play if he is fit and if he is not fit on Wednesday we will try on Thursday. And we will try on Friday and be always reasonable and take the responsibility for this decision.

'At the same time, we have trust if he cannot make it we have a strong guy on the bench with Kepa, who will take his place.

'So now the race is on. We are very happy, first of all, that the images don't show that the injury is too serious. At the moment we are positive but every hour counts.

'Hopefully the team around Edou and he himself can do enough and can help him enough to be on the pitch. It will be a good boost for us.'

Edouard Mendy story - From heavy uncertainty to every footballer's dream

Kante's chances of playing in the showpiece are also something Chelsea boss was positive about.

'With N'Golo nothing has changed,' Tuchel added. 'I think about changing my tactics now and stop asking about N'Golo, just put him on the pitch in Wednesday's training and put him on the pitch when the game starts on Saturday.

'Maybe I will not speak to the doctors and physios any more so I hear no more doubts and no more complaints.

'Maybe I have to think about changing the tactics. But it looks good and I hope it stays like that.'

Kante's presence in the midfield and Mendy standing between the post bring palpable stability in Chelsea's ranks. Good news for the London Blues - not that good for Guardiola & Co.