Scolari unsure of Cole and Kalou's fitness

[the wes 7,212]

Chelsea’s injury concerns are mounting ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League tie with CFR Cluj after Luiz Felipe Scolari confirmed the Portuguese duo of Deco and Ricardo Carvalho will be unavailable, whilst hinting that Salomon Kalou and Joe Cole could also both be absent.

Deco, Cole and Carvalho were all forced to sit out Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stoke, while Kalou – The Blues’ saviour against Manchester United last weekend – was forced off at half-time.

Scolari withdrew Kalou after the Ivorian took a knock to his ankle and, speaking after the game, was in no position to make any diagnoses on neither he nor Cole.

“I don’t know [for Kalou] because it’s the second time in the same leg,” he said. “I wish and I think for Romania it is okay.

“For Joe [Cole], I say nothing until tomorrow, but Deco and Ricardo [Carvalho] are out.”

Scolari has already stamped his creative hallmarks all over The Blues since arriving over the summer, but he was just as pleased with the scrappy manner of the win over the Premier League new boys.

“It is impossible to play beautiful football all the time and it was difficult against Stoke,” added the Brazilian. “Whenever we made a mistake they arrived and tried to put the ball in the box. We had to pay attention.

“But we kept out shape and that was important. It was fantastic to get a win like this as Stoke created only one or two chances.

“We always want to play football but sometimes the other team does not think that way. They just want to live off your mistakes

[EskWeston 696]

Well that would cause problems. With Cole and Kalou out that will leave us with only Malouda as a wide man for Cluj. Sinclair isn't in the CL squad so can't be used which will mean that he will have to use Belletti more than likely in a wide position.

Lets hope we can get one of them back ASAP and we don't have this problem for longer than 1 game.

[Kez 2,727]

Lack of squad depth could prove to start being a problem for us : /