Terry and Cole Deliver Fresh Setbacks to Chelsea

Chelsea may have to make do without their captain John Terry and left-back Ashley Cole for the next five matches after the injured pair were ruled out of action for three and four weeks, respectively.

Terry underwent a knee operation today after returning from England duty in Russia, where he suffered a recurrence of an injury during the team's final pre-match training session. He is expected to be sidelined for up to three weeks.

Cole, meanwhile, will miss at least a further month with the ankle ligament damage he sustained during England's win against Estonia last Saturday.

"John Terry had an operation today and will be out for two or three weeks," confirmed Chelsea's coach Avram Grant. "John had a problem and tried his best to be available for the national team but in the last moment of the training, he got injured again. He had the operation today and I hope everything will be well. Ashley Cole is injured as well and he is likely to be out for four weeks."

Both players are likely to miss the Premier League matches against Middlesbrough, Manchester City, Wigan and Everton, plus the Champions League game at home to Schalke. Assuming Chelsea's initial prognosis is correct, the pair will probably return to club action at home to Derby County on November 21.

While Terry could be fit and back in contention for England's final Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia three days earlier, Cole's chances of playing at Wembley are far slimmer.