Dominic Fifield in Naples
John Terry is set to miss the first leg of Chelsea‘s Champions League knockout tie with Napoli on Tuesday evening, and inclusion in the England squad for next week’s friendly against Holland as a result, as he continues to suffer discomfort from a knee injury.
Terry bruised the joint when colliding with a post in the FA Cup third-round victory over Portsmouth last month. The fluid on the knee had ruled him out of Chelsea’s previous four games – none of which were won – though the manager André Villas-Boas, while conceding the player was a “major doubt” in the buildup, had hoped the 31-year-old would be fit to return for the critical first confrontation with the Italians.
The centre-half played some part in training at the sodden stadium on Monday night but complained of pain in the knee on Tuesday morning, with Chelsea unlikely to risk him for the tie against Napoli. Given his prolonged absence from the first team at club level – he has not featured since the win at Queens Park Rangers on 28 January – it now seems unlikely that Terry will be considered by the interim England manager Stuart Pearce as he prepares to name his squad on Thursday for the game against the Dutch.
Pearce had been confronted by the potential problem of selecting both Terry and Rio Ferdinand, with the Chelsea player having already lost the national captaincy while he awaits trial for a racially aggravated public order offence allegedly made during an altercation with Ferdinand’s brother, Anton, during the Premier League meeting with Queens Park Rangers last October. The absence of Terry, who denies the charge, would serve to resolve that awkward situation in the short term, removing one potential distraction from the buildup to the fixture at Wembley.
However, the implications are grimmer for Villas-Boas. The Portuguese, while insisting he retains the backing of the Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, has seen his side slip to fifth in the Premier League table over recent weeks after only two wins in 10 matches, and stumble to a 1-1 draw with Birmingham City of the Championship in the FA Cup fifth round on Saturday. While either Branislav Ivanovic or Gary Cahill – who has yet to feature in the competition – will deputise in the centre, Terry’s presence will still be sorely missed at the Stadio San Paolo where the visitors were already braced for an awkward evening.