Terry Walks Into Starting Line-up After Making Dramatic Recovery

John Terry has made a remarkable recovery from the ankle injury he suffered in the opening minutes of the Champions League tie against Porto on Wednesday and will take his place in the starting line-up.

The speed of Terry's recovery has surprised the club's medical department, who had previously told Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho that the defender would not be available until the Portsmouth match on Saturday.

Club doctor Bryan English had said that the England defender had 'ruptured an ankle ligament' against Porto and left the stadium on crutches. Terry had an scan on Thursday and started walking the same day. English felt on Friday that Terry's injury would take 'five more days' to heal, so he informed Mourinho that Terry would not be available for selection in Cardiff.

However, English said last night that Terry 'felt a big improvement in his ankle and requested a fitness test'. Terry passed the test and took part in a training session, paving the way for him to play today. 'This recovery has surprised the medical department,' English said. 'I have apologised to Jose for providing him with misleading information.'

The dramatic developments regarding Terry's injury come at a crucial time for Mourinho, who is trying to put the most testing time of his managerial career behind him by winning the Carling Cup today. And, never one to rest on his laurels, the Chelsea manager has outlined his next ambition - to build a club with the freedom enjoyed by Arsene Wenger. 'I would love, I would love, I would love to do that,' said Mourinho. That is obviously not possible at the west-London club, with the whims of owner Roman Abramovich and financial plans of chief executive Peter Kenyon strongly influencing team affairs, but Mourinho realises that Chelsea are a special case.

'Because the club was without a big history and because of the pressures, it was important we started to win,' he said. 'If you look at Milan, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Bayern Munich and they win nothing for three, four, five years, nobody can delete their history. That means they can spend three, four, five, six years building a team because the history is there and no one doubts it..'

Although he envies the control Wenger has at Arsenal, Mourinho does not want to get involved in youth matters. 'Wenger has a different job to me,' he said. 'I wait for the work the youth department are doing, for the final product to be delivered to me and then I can finish it off.'