depending which report you read and/or choose to believe, Ivanovic is either "facing a race to be fit for West Ham away" or could be out for "up to six weeks"

here's Sky's take on the situation:

Injury setback for Ivanovic

Serbian defender laid low with back problem

Branislav Ivanovic is facing up to 'two to six weeks' on the sidelines with a back complaint.

The Chelsea defender has been ruled out of international action with Serbia, but will welcome the fact that he has a domestic break in which to recover.

He is disappointed to have been ruled out of Euro 2012 qualification action, with dates against the Faroe Islands and Slovenia to come over the course of the next 10 days, but accepts he must watch on from afar.

"I came to Belgrade to see my team-mates, but the back injury is such that I cannot train or play," he said on Monday.

Ivanovic's priority now is to rest and try to shake off the knock as quickly as possible.

Struggle

Premier League action is set to resume after the international break on 11th September, with Chelsea taking on West Ham in a London derby that day.

They then get their UEFA Champions League campaign up and running on the following Wednesday against MSK Zilina.

Ivanovic may struggle to make either of those two games, but could be pushing for a recall by the time the Blues entertain Blackpool on 19th September.

The worse case scenario for the Serb is that he is forced to miss six weeks of action, as that would mean sitting out a number of crunch clashes at home and abroad.

LINK

Here we go again,another injury to contend with...brilliant :(

Not good but Bosingwa should be back in a week?

Yep Bos back in full training now. Awful thing to say but it's good timing! Though it's going to take him a month or so to gain full match fitness I suspect.

Yep Bos back in full training now. Awful thing to say but it's good timing! Though it's going to take him a month or so to gain full match fitness I suspect.

And in that time we have to rely on Ferreira. Gah. At least we're not playing anyone tough.

Not good but Bosingwa should be back in a week?

In other words he'll be playing against the Hammers?

There's no way Bosingwa will start immediately after coming back from an injury that long, surely?

Gutted to hear about Ivan being injured. Hopefully Ferreira can deal with the attacking genius that is Kieron Dyer or Luis Boa Morte...

anceloti now must trust to ferreira... but i think we will sign defender in january..

Plenty cover in that area, so I'm not too worried. Just hope that Ivan gets fit soon.

Plenty cover in that area, so I'm not too worried. Just hope that Ivan gets fit soon.

who is the cover for west ham? With no Ivan, bruma and possibly no Boss. If Terry or Alex come up lame who Plays CB? All we really have is Van Aanholt to cover. A little to thin for my liking

Ivanovic is a bad miss. What if JT can't play? There is no suitable cover.

So , what do people want ? A £35 million bid for Ramos ? Luiz ? A bid for Carragher !?

Its just for one ir two games! No panic. If it comes to it lets not forget Paulo and Essien have played at CB too (with different levels of success!) Its only really the West Ham and Zilna games that are an issue and even if we do concende one or two in those matches we still should have way enough on the rest of the field to stick in more than we concede at the other end.

Its a small problem that wont last for long - There must be no panic buying!!!

In 3 weeks time, they could all be fit and we are back to seeing who gets left on the bench or left out of the squad altogether!

Better testing our depth in these less difficult matches than in the champions league or against the top 6. If Lampard or Terry aren't fit either id much rather risk playing Ramires and Bruma than rushing them back, causing more complications in the future.

I hope Bosingwa will back soon!

So , what do people want ? A £35 million bid for Ramos ? Luiz ? A bid for Carragher !?

Its just for one ir two games! No panic. If it comes to it lets not forget Paulo and Essien have played at CB too (with different levels of success!) Its only really the West Ham and Zilna games that are an issue and even if we do concende one or two in those matches we still should have way enough on the rest of the field to stick in more than we concede at the other end.

Its a small problem that wont last for long - There must be no panic buying!!!

In 3 weeks time, they could all be fit and we are back to seeing who gets left on the bench or left out of the squad altogether!

Excellent post

I heard he could be out for anything from two weeks to two years. Or possibly longer. Or not.

So , what do people want ? A £35 million bid for Ramos ? Luiz ? A bid for Carragher !?

Its just for one ir two games! No panic. If it comes to it lets not forget Paulo and Essien have played at CB too (with different levels of success!) Its only really the West Ham and Zilna games that are an issue and even if we do concende one or two in those matches we still should have way enough on the rest of the field to stick in more than we concede at the other end.

Its a small problem that wont last for long - There must be no panic buying!!!

In 3 weeks time, they could all be fit and we are back to seeing who gets left on the bench or left out of the squad altogether!

Never said that but for a club with ambition in 4 major cups we are thin at cb at the moment. If Ivan's back in 2 weeks its not a problem, if it looks more like 6 I think we should pick someone up. Not a $35 million defender but maybe someone in the $5-8 million range who can fill in for a few weeks and can play in a couple of cup games.

This could be a big loss. I'll believe Boswinga is coming back when he trots on the pitch with a blue kit on.

Of course... a long term injury (possibly) :( Then again, Cech was back for our first match, I hadn't expected him to recover that quickly.

Never said that but for a club with ambition in 4 major cups we are thin at cb at the moment. If Ivan's back in 2 weeks its not a problem, if it looks more like 6 I think we should pick someone up. Not a $35 million defender but maybe someone in the $5-8 million range who can fill in for a few weeks and can play in a couple of cup games.

You think we should spend about £6m on a player to play 5 or 6 games a season?

Is it really worth having a reserve and youth team?

feel sad for the guy, and its also a bit risky having him out if JT's injury is serious, wheres the cover going come from??

possibly essien playing at the back again??

feel sad for the guy, and its also a bit risky having him out if JT's injury is serious, wheres the cover going come from??

possibly essien playing at the back again??

I wonder how Ramirez would do as a fullback......

Edit: dont forget people Zhirkov has done well at LB as well as Malouda, we could always try switching Cole into a temp CB.....

Edited August 31, 201015 yr by Barry Bridges

You think we should spend about £6m on a player to play 5 or 6 games a season?

Is it really worth having a reserve and youth team?

I'm not sure. We keep loading them out so we really don't know. Ryan Bertrand or Michael Mancienne would have provided the cover we need at the moment, plus they are English players so they wouldn't have counted against the club.

I'm not sure. We keep loading them out so we really don't know. Ryan Bertrand or Michael Mancienne would have provided the cover we need at the moment, plus they are English players so they wouldn't have counted against the club.

Bruma and Van Aanholt provide the same cover and are under 21 so their nationality doesn't matter.