Mourinho rues Chelsea injuries

Manager Jose Mourinho lamented Chelsea's run of injuries after he lost England captain John Terry to a twisted ankle and Dutch winger Arjen Robben to a muscle strain against Porto on Wednesday.

Chelsea came away with a 1-1 draw from the first knock-out round, first leg Champions League tie but are depleted going into Sunday's English League Cup final against Arsenal.

Terry will miss Sunday's final, Mourinho told reporters yesterday.

Chelsea are particularly short in central defence having lost Dutch international Khalid Boulahrouz with a dislocated shoulder last Saturday.

"John Terry has a problem with his ankle ligaments, but I cannot say much more," Mourinho was quoted as saying on Chelsea's official website.

"We don't have Boulahrouz and now we don't have Terry. We have just one central defender again. We have to play against Arsenal on Sunday with (Michael) Essien and (Ricardo) Carvalho at the back because we have no choice."

Despite the mounting injury crisis Mourinho, who coached Porto to Champions League glory in 2004, took heart from his team's fightback to level the tie on Wednesday.

"It's a positive result, a draw and playing away from home," Mourinho told Sky Sports.

"Under the circumstances I'm happy. You come here and after five minutes you lose JT (John Terry).

"You have no central defenders on the bench so you have to change the system, you have to change everything. We have problem after problem. We keep losing players. Michael Essien is the power of the midfield and we have to play him in defence."

Terry returned to action only three weeks ago after eight weeks out with a back injury and Boulahrouz had also missed most games since the new year with a knee problem.

Those injuries caused friction in the Chelsea camp with Mourinho wanting to sign a defender and the Chelsea board reluctant to spend.

Another cause of earlier friction, the form of £30 million ($58.51 million) signing Andriy Shevchenko, appears to have subsided after the Ukraine striker scored Chelsea's equaliser to cancel out an opener from Raul Meireles.

"I think he is improving a lot, the way he's working for the team," Mourinho said of Shevchenko.

Fair result

Porto's Jesualdo Ferreira, the fifth coach at the Dragon Stadium since Mourinho left for London in 2004, said the result was fair.

"Everything is still open. We know it's going to be very difficult but Chelsea also know it's not going to be easy," he said.

Mourinho has Sunday's final in Cardiff and a Premier League match at Portsmouth to negotiate before meeting his former club for the return leg at Stamford Bridge on March 6.

"Porto played well. I am proud as a Portuguese man," he said. "Their dream is still alive but they know Stamford Bridge is a difficult place to get a result."