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PREMIER LEAGUE: CHELSEA FACES INJURY CRISIS August 6, 2007
(SomaliNet) An injury crisis is threatening to hamper Chelsea's start to the new campaign with nine players sidelined with less than a week to go before the big kick off.
Blues captain John Terry is certain to miss next Sunday's opener against Birmingham and will be out for the first month of the new season with a knee problem.
And joining him on the treatment table are Didier Drogba, Salomon Kalou, Michael Ballack, Arjen Robben, Paolo Ferreira, Wayne Bridge, Andriy Shevchenko and Claude Makelele.
Terry suffered the injury to medial knee ligaments on Saturday and sat out the Community Shield penalty defeat to Manchester United.
The England defender had been playing through the pain barrier with a broken toe before picking up his latest setback.
Along with the clash with Birmingham, Terry will miss matches against Reading, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Aston Villa plus the friendly against Germany in September. He is also a serious doubt for the remainder of England's Euro 2008 qualifying campaign, including the must-win clashes against Israel and Russia.
Striker Drogba, meanwhile, is awaiting results of a scan on an unspecified injury that forced him out of Sunday's match.
Blues boss Jose Mourinho admitted just to have one player back before the start of the season would be an improvement on the current situation, which is startling reminiscent of the injury crisis Chelsea suffered last term.
He said: "When you have so many injured players, you hope one or two can be back. I would be happy just to have Kalou."
Mourinho's predicament was not helped when goalkeeper Petr Cech, defender Glen Johnson and wingers Florent Malouda and Shaun Wright-Phillips all picked up minor knocks before half-time against United.-Eurosprot