Chelsea Team News: Mourinho Confirms Blow As Player Faces Month Out After Surgery

Chelsea will be hoping to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table when they take on West Ham at Upton Park on Wednesday night.

Ahead of the game, Jose Mourinho has been speaking to the media at his pre-match press conference this morning and gave a team news and injury update.

The Blues have been dealt a blow as Mourinho confirmed that John Obi Mikel has been ruled out for a further month after undergoing surgery on his troublesome knee injury last week.

Mikel has been hampered by the problem in recent weeks and it seems the club have been forced to operate to cure the injury once and for all, but it means the midfielder will be out until the first week in April.

The Nigerian remains Chelsea’s only injury absentee, but this latest set-back means he’ll miss upcoming games against West Ham, Paris Saint-Germain, Southampton and Hull City.

With Mikel injured and Nemanja Matic suspended, Mourinho was forced to play centre-back Kurt Zouma in a defensive midfield position in the Capital One Cup final win over Tottenham on Sunday.

It remains to be seen whether he’ll be asked to continue in that role tomorrow but the Blues boss confirmed that Zouma’s future isn’t in midfield and he’ll make changes for the game at Upton Park.

Chelsea head into the midweek fixtures holding a five point lead over Manchester City with a game in hand so they’ll go another step closer to reclaiming the title if they can pick up three points against the Hammers tomorrow night.

Jose reports John Mikel Obi had a small knee operation a week ago and may be back in the first week in April. #CFC

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 3, 2015

Jose says he won't play the same 11 players tomorrow as on Sunday. #CFC

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 3, 2015

Jose says Kurt Zouma's future is not in midfield but if he hadn't played there at Wembley then the team would have been in trouble. #CFC

— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) March 3, 2015