N’golo Kante, the current favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year award has tipped a team-mate to win the gong instead of him.

N’Golo Kante has been tipped by almost every bookmaker to win the award after a superb debut season at Chelsea, but the Frenchman believes his team-mate Eden Hazard has been a “different-class” and deserves the honour instead of him.

Under PFA rules Kante is not allowed to vote for his team-mate but has stressed that the Belgian should win the award for a second time, after he won the accolade in 2014/15.

“For me it’s easy to say one player from Chelsea. We can all see what Eden Hazard is doing. He’s a different-class player,” the Frenchman told Sky Sports News.

However, while Kante believes that the PFA Player of the Year award is all wrapped up, the 26-year-old concedes that the Premier League title race is still very much alive.

“We still have eight games and we have to win six,” he said. “Tottenham are a good team playing very well, so it’s not done and we have to fight.

“Maybe Tottenham and Liverpool are going to come back so we have to focus on our game and play game-after-game for the title.

“Mathematically we need six wins, so we just need to focus on our way and win six games as soon as possible for this title”.