Chelsea Injury Update: Mata, Terry & More….

Andre Villas-Boas provided an injury update in his weekly press conference today ahead of Chelsea’s match with Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.

According to Chelseafc.com, AVB is able to call upon Spaniard Juan Mata despite the midfielder breaking his finger during Tuesday’s 3-1 defeat to Napoli, while Fernando Torres will face a late test after missing training on Thursday through illness.

Defender Jose Bosingwa is definitely out after picking up a hamstring injury in Naples, and he joins fellow defender John Terry on the sidelines after the Blues captain underwent surgery on his knee on Wednesday and will be out for up to six weeks.

In Terry’s absence, January signing Gary Cahill has formed a new partnership with David Luiz at the heart of the Chelsea defence and many pundits have questioned their recent form, but Villas-Boas feels the two just need time to gel. Here is what Villas-Boas told chelseafc.com:

‘John Terry is out after his knee operation and he is going to be out for five to six weeks, hopefully sooner. There is a possibility he can be back sooner so he starts his rehabilitation today and is out of the game,’ Villas-Boas reported.

‘He is a player we badly miss, of massive importance to us. He is a leader and had great performances for us this season, even through adversity [when he was] already struggling with his knee injury, and when we had only two central defenders and David Luiz and John had that run. He was amazing and is badly missed.’

‘At the moment it is a new partnership. We lost Bosingwa to a muscle injury, and we have Ivanovic and Ferreira at right-back,’ he said. ‘We have used Ivanovic more often which means a new pairing with Gary and David Luiz which we are trying to fine-tune to be more stable like we were in January.

‘I don’t think it’s about communication, both are very extroverted, Gary speaks a lot and organises the defence.I think it is just takes time as a new partnership to get used to the person next to you.

‘[Cahill] has played the games he has to play and is doing excellent. I am very happy with his performances. In the beginning, if he was first available for Norwich with only two training sessions, then January was our best defensive record statistically, so we didn’t want to shift the dynamic of the team, and he eventually had his first chance against Man United and did extremely well and has been doing since then.’ Villas-Boas told Chelseafc.com