CHELSEA DEFENDER JOHN Terry has been ruled out of their English Premier League clash against Manchester City on Wednesday.
The 31-year-old was substituted during the latter stages of the Blues thrilling extra-time win against Napoli in the Champions League after injuring his knee and will miss the match at the Etihad Stadium, although Roberto Di Matteo is hopeful he will be fit to face Spurs.
“We almost have a fully fit squad for the City game, only Romeu and Terry are out,” Di Matteo said.
“It’s still a bit too early for Terry. He did very well to come back in such a short time and we were lucky. He should be fine for the weekend (against Spurs).
“Well we will be looking after ourselves and hopefully we can get a good game tomorrow and pick some points up for our position in the table because we need some points too.
“I think we have a very good team and squad, a very strong one, they have shown that over the years.
“Obviously the table shows that we have won more games this season than we have, but I think we are very competitive.”Former West Brom boss Di Matteo has won all four of his matches since taking over from Andre Villas-Boas and he believes it is important that the players build on this by continuing to work hard.
“We need to prevent Man City from expressing themselves, they have quality players all over, from defence to attack,” he said.
“A confident team can be the difference between now and end of season, every player needs to put the effort in.”
Di Matteo also backed Chelsea’s medical staff in the wake of Fabrice Muamba’s on-field collapse for Bolton in the FA Cup at the weekend.
“As far as I know none of our players have requested extra heart scans,” he said.
“It is normal procedure for the players to have one at the start of the season, but I think our medical department is up to scratch and we are very happy with the way it works.
“First of all, I think the people at Spurs, at White Hart Lane did a magnificent job.
“I think Fabrice is probably still alive because of the people there and I think we have to be very grateful for them. I think anything that can improve the security or health of the players I think we welcome.”
