New injury woe for Robben

Chelsea winger Arjen Robben’s injury problems returned tonight as the 21-year-old suffered a calf injury during Holland’s World Cup qualifier away to Romania.

The Dutch star had just returned to the Blues line-up after more than a month on the sidelines with two broken bones in his left foot and Holland coach Marco van Basten admitted the new injury, which forced him to limp off after 21 minutes in Bucharest, also looked “quite bad”.

“He has something wrong with his calf. It’s mysterious and they (the doctors) are looking into it,” van Basten said.

“Robben’s injury looks quite bad – he probably won’t play against Armenia (in Holland’s next qualifier on Wednesday) and it looks like a longer injury.”

The former PSV Eindhoven star missed out on both legs of Chelsea’s last-16 Champions League tie against Barcelona and, depending on the severity of this new injury, may be struggling for the first leg of the quarter-final clash with Bayern Munich on April 5.

He made his return to Jose Mourinho’s team as a substitute in the 4-1 win over Crystal Palace last weekend after he suffered a foot injury in a challenge with Blackburn’s Aaron Mokoena on February 2 at Ewood Park.

Robben did not make his debut for Chelsea following his £12million move from PSV until October because of another foot injury sustained during pre-season training.

He made an immediate impact as the London side, who had been winning without playing fluent football, suddenly hit their stride and started scoring with abandon.

In tonight’s match, Holland led through Phillip Cocu’s first-minute goal when Robben was substituted and it was his replacement Ryan Babel who sealed a victory by scoring a second five minutes from time.