Terry set for ankle scans

Chelsea captain John Terry will miss the Carling Cup final but should be fit enough for England’s World Cup qualifiers against Israel and Andorra next month.

The England skipper will undergo scans on the right ankle he damaged last night later today but while the injury will rule him out of Sunday’s final against Arsenal at Cardiff’s Millennium stadium, it is not expected to be a long-term problem.

Terry limped home on crutches and wearing a special boot to protect the injury that happened within the first 10 minutes of their Champions League last-16 first-leg 1-1 draw with Porto last night.

Chelsea were hit by a double blow as Porto went on to score their opening goal while Terry was receiving treatment.

However, the centre-half had already signalled to the bench that he could not continue after twisting his ankle has he went to clear the ball to safety.

Raul Meireles took advantage of Chelsea’s sloppy defending to put Mourinho’s former team in front with a volley that zipped beyond Blues goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Five minutes later, the much-maligned Andriy Shevchenko scored his 58th goal in European competition to leave him just four short of Gerd Muller’s all-time record.

Mourinho was cheered by news that Dutch winger Arjen Robben should be fit to face Arsenal.

The Portuguese coach replaced the Dutchman at half-time after the player complained of a muscle injury.

Robben had replaced Terry in the opening half but Mourinho, fearful of losing another player for a long period, opted to replace him and the move looks to have paid off.

Mourinho declared: “I think Robben’s injury is a consequence of not warming up. I wanted to put Mikel Jon Obi on but they scored while we were down to 10 men and so I put Robben on instead.

“He had to go straight on. I don’t think it is a big thing. At half-time he wanted to try and play on but I didn’t want to lose another player for a long time so I decided to put Mikel on.

“We don’t have Khalid Boulahrouz and we don’t have John Terry. We have one central defender – Ricardo Carvalho.

“From the moment he was injured, everything changed. Michael Essien is one of the players in form in Chelsea. In midfield he is almost unstoppable because of his power but he is playing as a central defender again.

“We are not in an easy situation. I do not know when John Terry will be back but I am cool about it.

“It is unbelievable because of the injuries we keep getting. I didn’t think Frank Lampard would play the game after seeing him on the morning of the match. But he is a top professional and wanted to play because he felt the team needed him.

“We have a lot of problems but we are surviving. We are there. We cannot cry about it. We have to play against Arsenal with Essien and Carvalho at the back - we don’t have a choice.”

However, England left-back Ashley Cole boosted Mourinho’s Carling Cup options after playing for the reserves against Reading last night.

Cole has been out since the end of January with a knee injury but could now be included in Mourinho’s plans for the final.