Jose Mourinho provides injury updates to two Chelsea players ahead of Tottenham clash

John Terry injured his ankle late in the game in Tel Aviv

JOHN TERRY is a major doubt for Chelsea's Premier clash with Tottenham on Sunday, Jose Mourinho has revealed.

 

Terry, 34, injured his ankle in the Blues' 4-0 Champions League victory at Maccabi Tel Aviv last night.

Mourinho blamed a "dangerous pitch" for the injury, which forced Terry off after 72 minutes when Chelsea were only a goal up.

 

And the manager expressed his concern that the club captain could sit out Sunday's noon kick off at White Hart Lane.

"My medical department is really good and John is a professional guy with a special desire to recover," he said.

"But to leave the pitch with the result 1-0, I don’t believe too much that he can play at Tottenham on Sunday."

 

Chelsea head to Spurs off the back of their 1-0 victory over Norwich last weekend knowing a victory could see them up to 12th in the table if other results go their way.

But they are likely to also be without midfielder Ramires, who suffered a muscle injury the day before the game after training on Maccabi's pitch.

"I said in an interview before the match that such a beautiful stadium and such a fantastic public deserve a better surface because it was bad and dangerous," Mourinho added.

"We tried to protect ourselves by only training a little bit on it but to my surprise Maccabi trained on it after us, plus there was the warm-up before the game, so the pitch was really bad."

 

Ramires injured himself a day before the Tel Aviv clash

 

Tottenham face Qarabag on Thursday in Azerbaijan

As for Spurs, they must travel to Azerbaijan and back on Thursday to play a Europa League group tie against FK Qarabag.

Mauricio Pochettino's men sit top of Group J and could secure automatic progression to the knockout stage with a victory.

Asked about his team's fixture schedule, Pochettino said: "I laugh. It is like the week when we played Monday, Thursday and Sunday.

"Maybe it's worse because you need to fly nearly six hours, and then there is the decision about whether to come straight back or stay.

"It's very difficult because both decisions are bad."