Chelsea
have confirmed defender Thiago Silva suffered knee ligament damage during
Sunday's 2-0 defeat against Tottenham.
The 38-year-old centre-back limped off after just 19 minutes during the
Super Sunday game and was replaced by Wesley Fofana.
Chelsea have given no official timeframe on his return but reports claim the
defender could be out for as long as six weeks.
A Chelsea statement read: "Having sustained a knee injury during the first
half of Sunday's match against Tottenham Hotspur, Thiago underwent further
assessment and a scan on his return to the training centre on Monday.
"Scan results from those assessments have confirmed damage to Thiago's knee
ligaments and he will now work closely with the club's medical department
during his rehabilitation to return to action as soon as possible."
A time frame of six weeks would rule Silva out of Chelsea's crucial
Champions League last-16 second leg against Borussia Dortmund, and the
Brazil defender would also be a doubt for the quarter-finals should the
Blues get through.
As well as Fofana, Graham Potter's side have Kalidou Koulibaly, Trevoh
Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile as centre-back options - but the latter is
not eligible to play in the Champions League.
Hasselbaink: Chelsea fell apart without
Thiago
Former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink spoke of Thiago Silva's
importance to Chelsea on Sky Sports in the wake of their defeat at the
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
"For me, after Thiago left the pitch, the level of Chelsea dropped," he said
after the game. "They started the game ever so well, but then he went off
and it went a little bit chaotic."
Hasselbaink underlined the value of the Brazil defender's leadership and
insisted Chelsea's youngers players must learn to step up and shoulder more
responsibility when he is not there.
"The team is very young, and when something goes wrong, you can see that
certain individuals feel a little bit sorry for themselves," he added.
"That's the feeling that I get.
"That is where they need to step out of it, as quickly as possible, because
they can still get sixth or seventh and get into Europe.
"They need to realise that the commitment needs to be for 95 minutes, not
just for 20 minutes."
Chelsea's next five fixtures...
Saturday March 4: Leeds (H) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
Tuesday March 7: Borussia Dortmund (H) - Champions League, kick-off 8pm
Saturday March 11: Leicester City (A) - Premier League, kick-off 3pm
Saturday March 18: Everton (H) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm - live on
Sky Sports
Saturday April 1: Aston Villa (H) - Premier League, kick-off 5.30pm - live
on Sky Sports
Potter under pressure but has ownership
support
Chelsea head coach Potter is under pressure following a run of poor form at
Stamford Bridge - but he still has the support of at least one of the club's
owners.
Potter's side sit 10th in the Premier League table and 14 points behind
fourth-placed Tottenham and have won just once in their last 11 matches in
all competitions - scoring four goals in that time - while they have failed
to record a victory in any away match since October 16.
Defeat at Tottenham on Sunday increased the scrutiny on Potter's position,
but the feeling is that changing managers now would be a step backwards, not
forwards, for the Blues, especially because of the investment made in new
players and building a new structure around the head coach.
Chairman Todd Boehly, who led the consortium which completed the £4.25bn
takeover last May, shares voting rights equally with Clearlake Capital, a
Californian investment fund which owns the majority of shares in Chelsea.
Behdad Ehgbali and Jose E Feliciano, co-founders of Clearlake, represent the
investment fund at Chelsea.
Since the arrival of new Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership at Stamford
Bridge, Chelsea have spent more than £600m in bringing in 19 new players to
the squad, including Argentina midfielder Enzo Fernandez for a British
transfer record fee of £106.8m
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