Chelsea have confirmed Ricardo Carvalho is out for up to four weeks, while Deco will be missing for a fortnight.

Carvalho was forced off in the early stages of Chelsea's 1-1 draw with Manchester United on Sunday after picking up a knee injury.

Tests have shown that the Portuguese centre-half has strained a medial collateral ligament and will be sidelined for three to four weeks.

The 30-year-old will now miss several games for the Blues, starting with Wednesday's Carling Cup tie against Portsmouth.

He could also sit out the next two UEFA Champions League group games against CFR Cluj next week and Roma on 22nd October.

However, Chelsea will be hoping that Carvalho will be fit to return for the Premier League game at home to Liverpool on Sunday 26th October.

Meanwhile, Carvalho's fellow Portugal international Deco will be out for two weeks after being diagnosed with a tear in his upper thigh muscle.

Deco suffered the injury in the warm-up before Sunday's stalemate with United and was replaced in the starting line-up by Michael Ballack.

The playmaker is likely to sit out Chelsea's next four matches, but should return after the international break against Middlesbrough.

Put this in another thread but more appropriate here.

This, for me, is not a big problem as long as Alex and Terry avoid injuries or suspension. Alex is more than capable of standing in as he has proved time and time again.

As for Deco the games he will miss are Pompey in the League CUp (which he may not have played in anyway), Stoke, Cluj and Villa. All of these we should be able to win without Deco.

We have a very good back up in Alex, and then if he or JT are injured, we have Ivanovic. If Alex, JT and Ivanovic get injured, we may be in a bit of a pickle.

We have a very good back up in Alex, and then if he or JT are injured, we have Ivanovic. If Alex, JT and Ivanovic get injured, we may be in a bit of a pickle.

i think we definately need to play ivanovic on wednesday just to get him some game time in case we need him. maybe play both alex and ivanovich and rest JT. cant believe were having these problems again, just like last season. so far weve lost essien, deco and riccy to injury, with ballack and drogba missing the start to the season. how much bad luck are we having.

sad that riccy will be out for that long

alex will be ample cover, we have ivanovich who should get a start on wednesday against pompey, also paulo ferriera who not ideal could step across and i'm pretty sure belleti could play in the centre of defence if required so we have ample cover

as for deco i reckon its a huge blow, we may not miss him against pompey because he probably wouldnt have played anyway, we shouldnt really need him against stoke or cluj but would miss him against villa, but we have plenty of cover

If we're going to have people missing I'd rather it was now than when we're getting down to crunch time at the end of the season. There's enough quality that is still fresh in the squad right now plus it'll do some of the fringe players good to get a run out this early in the season.

Luckily Alex proved a more than worthy replacement.

I hope Ballack can live up to the form of the end of last season... we looked a bit stuck at the beginning against Man Ure without Deco there for fluid movement.

Glad that it's only a month...we've not done to well in the knee injury departments lately. Anyway, Alex can come in, and Ivanovich can step up to warming the bench and getting a few minutes under his belt. Although I wonder if we'll see Ferreira come into the middle?

I'm glad we have Alex but he's no replacement for Ricci, he's a lot more like JT. They are both slowish and they need a partner who's a little quicker.

I think JT has never been able to recover since he had those run of injuries, and those few times I have seen Alex play with Ricci I see potentially a very fruitful partnership. It kind of reminds me when JT and Gallas first played together 7 years ago, when the Rock was out. I could see the same thing happen there. I might be scared for JT when Ricci comes back, because if Alex proves himself to be the more reliable performer in the next month (and JT hasn't always been as reliable as we have come to expect lately), Big Phil may decide to give our hero a kick up the bum and slot Ricci back in with Alex.

Don't carry on and scream that Big Phil will never do that, he's our captain, our blood and soul, blah, blah, blah. I love JT as much as anyone else but a kick up the bum is what he needs to recover that extra 2% in fitness and come back as the dog's bollocks.

If we're going to have people missing I'd rather it was now than when we're getting down to crunch time at the end of the season. There's enough quality that is still fresh in the squad right now plus it'll do some of the fringe players good to get a run out this early in the season.

Agreed, and the fact we have Alex and Ballack coming in to replace Ricky and Deco doesn't fill me with dread.

Carvalho had injury 'fear'

Blues defender had 'grave' concerns over knee injury

Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho feared the knee injury he sustained at the weekend was set to sideline him for a far lengthier time period than discovered on Monday.

The centre-back is facing up to four weeks out after he strained a medial collateral ligament in the 1-1 Premier League draw with Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.

Carvalho is set to miss several key games for the Blues, but the 30-year-old Portugal international has revealed he initially feared he could be out of action for far longer.

He said in the Daily Mirror: "I thought the injury was worse at first because I thought my knee had cracked and I feared it would be much more grave.

"The tests show it could be three or four weeks, although that is very bad for me because I have important games for Chelsea and Portugal in October.

"But the Chelsea team showed, no matter what, that they have great character and pride by getting a point against Manchester United."

Source

Edited September 23, 200817 yr by Chelsea FC Champions

Alex is more than able to come in and do a job at centre-back as he showed on Sunday... we've also got Ivanovic and Mancienne derserves a chance too

The only game that worries me is the Villa one, as they are always a hard team for us, are in good form this season, and have the pace to worry a slowish pairing of JT and Alex.

We should be ok for these few weeks though...

i remembered Alex scored a goal V Aston Villa...im hoping it will repeat..

PS/ i got my 1000th post :D

Edited September 23, 200817 yr by Chelsea FC Champions