John Terry has failed to recover from an ankle ligament injury in time to feature for Chelsea at Arsenal on Saturday, with David Luiz set to retain his place at the heart of the visitors’ defence at the Emirates Stadium.
Terry strained ligaments in his right ankle late on in the draw with Swansea City this month and, having missed the 2-1 home defeat to Liverpool and the midweek League Cup victory at Leicester, will now be absent from the London derby. The 35-year-old trained with the first-team squad this week but is not deemed fit enough to play; next weekend’s trip to Hull City is a more realistic target.
“John didn’t recover from his injury,” Antonio Conte said. “He’s working, working, but he didn’t recover for the game against Arsenal. I don’t know [when he will be back] but, in this case, it’s important what the player feels, and he feels pain. In the team and the squad we have three central defenders. It’s normal to make a choice. I don’t see any problem in this situation.”
David Luiz, the £34m signing from Paris Saint-Germain on transfer deadline day, started the past two games alongside Gary Cahill and, despite Chelsea conceding twice in those matches, is expected to retain his place.
“When we concede goals [such as at Leicester], all the team conceded, not just the defenders,” Conte said. “That means we must improve together to improve the defensive situation. The problem was already there last season. Chelsea conceded 53 goals last season. We must work a lot on this aspect. If you want to have a great championship, sure, you can’t concede that many goals.”
Chelsea’s France defender, Kurt Zouma, will rejoin the first-team group for full training next week as he steps up his rehabilitation from a long-term knee injury. The 21-year-old ruptured a cruciate ligament against Manchester United in February, missed Euro 2016 and has played a minor part at Cobham when training has been non-contact over recent weeks.
“But I hope to see him in the [full] training sessions next week,” Conte said. “He’s in good shape and I hope to see him next week in training, to start counting on him.” The centre-half will hope to be contention for a first-team return after the international window.