Injured Terry a doubt for London derby – Mourinho

Jose Mourinho fears Chelsea captain John Terry will miss Sunday’s Premier League derby against Tottenham after leaving the field on a stretcher during the 4-0 Champions League victory at Maccabi Tel Aviv.

The visitors broke the deadlock after 20 minutes through Gary Cahill and experienced former Chelsea defender Tal Ben Haim was sent off for a rash kick at Diego Costa on the stroke of half-time on Tuesday.

Mourinho then had to confront the worrying sight of Terry departing before Willian netted a trademark free-kick and Oscar and Kurt Zouma – on in place of his skipper – added gloss to the scoreline.

Terry sustained an apparent foot injury, with Mourinho blaming the state of the pitch at the Sammy Ofer Stadium for the skipper’s problem and a knock sustained during Monday’s training session that ruled midfielder Ramires out of the matchday squad.

“Of course he is a doubt [for Tottenham],” Mourinho told BT Sport.

“I don’t want to speak about it until we assess him when we are back in London but I think he is a big doubt.

“One injury yesterday on this pitch with Ramires and another one today with John Terry because the pitch is really bad.”

Chelsea beat Norwich City in the Premier League at the weekend and this latest lift to their ailing campaign moves them level on points at the top of Group G alongside Porto, who lost at home to Dynamo Kiev.

All three teams can qualify in the final round of fixtures and Mourinho was pleased to see his team put themselves in a strong position.

“It was very important especially with what happened in Porto. We really needed to win this match,” he said.

“It is also important to have two victories in a few days. I hope tranquillity comes, morale comes, confidence comes.

“Everything is open for the last match and in this moment we are in a good position.”

Mourinho felt the final scoreline was a touch harsh on Maccabi, who turned in a spirited performance while a man down.

He added: “They don’t deserve such a hard punishment, they did okay for some periods of the game.

“Even with 10 men they had some chances and Asmir Begovic did a beautiful hand to keep out the [Eran] Zahavi shot.”