Mourinho weighing up bid for Joaquin

CHELSEA were yesterday given encouragement to bid for Spanish winger Joaquin as boss Jose Mourinho assessed whether Scott Parker’s injury blow would force him to break his transfer window pledge.

Mourinho had only recently maintained that, unless injuries intervened to disrupt his plans, there was no obvious reason to strengthen his large squad next month.

However, Parker has since been ruled out of action for up to three months with a broken bone in his foot, reducing Chelsea’s midfield cover.