A scan on Chelsea captain John Terry’s ankle has revealed some slight damage that will rule him out of playing any football for ten days, meaning that he will miss this Friday night’s Premier League clash with Liverpool.
The club released a statement on their website on Tuesday afternoon saying, “John Terry’s injury suffered in Sunday’s game at Swansea is strained ligaments in his foot. He will be out for approximately 10 days”.
Terry went in for a challenge with Swansea player Leroy Fer in the closing minutes of the match and appeared to roll his ankle. He was later seen leaving the Liberty Stadium on crutches and soon after posted a video onto his social media account Instagram of him having treatment on the injury.
It was a fiery encounter between the West London club and the Welsh side, with the former hoping to achieve four straight league victories and the latter looking to avoid three straight defeats. Diego Costa was involved in a number of altercations and was booked for a poorly timed tackle on Federico Fernandez and could have been sent off for a second bookable offence when he appeared to dive after a challenge with Swansea goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Chelsea central defender was critical of the match referee Andre Marriner for failing to see that the tackle on him by Swansea’s Leroy Fer was a foul. Marriner saw nothing wrong with the challenge and Fer went on to score the Swans’ second goal of the game, with Cahill suggesting “you could be sat on the moon and see it [was a foul]”.
It was Fer again who was involved in the Terry incident, though no malice is suggested to have taken place when the two players came together. It left the Chelsea captain bruised and battered and now likely to miss the club’s crucial game against Liverpool. Chelsea lost 3-1 to the Merseyside team in the equivalent fixture last season under former manager José Mourinho. The self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ was sacked in December and replaced by Guus Hiddink on an interim basis. The Dutchman earned a creditable 1-1 draw at Anfield.
The two sides also faced each other in their pre-season campaign, with new Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte’s side beating Jürgen Klopp’s team 1-0 thanks to a Gary Cahill goal. That was also a fiery match despite being a friendly, as Blues midfielder Cesc Fabregas was sent off.
The absence of Terry from the starting line-up means that David Luiz is likely to make his Chelsea debut during his second spell at the club. He arrived in 2011 and was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £50 million three years later; a record transfer fee for a defender. He was re-signed on Deadline Day last month as the club’s Italian manager looked to try and bring in some fresh legs to his defence.
Luiz’s Premier League debut during his initial spell in West London came in a game against Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, with the Merseysiders winning 1-0. Conte will be hoping that history does not repeat itself, given that during his time as Juventus manager the Italian side only lost two Serie A games in the three years he was in charge.
Terry now faces a race against time to be fit for Chelsea’s away match against the defending Premier League champions Leicester City on the 20th of September. The Blues head to The King Power Stadium for the next round of the EPL Cup against the Foxes. The Chelsea captain is hoping he will definitely be back in time for the London derby with Arsenal a week on Saturday.