Lamps hails defiant skipper Terry

Frank Lampard lifted the Carling Cup and then paid tribute to John Terry’s desire to return to the dressing room and celebrate their second Carling Cup win inside three years.

Chelsea beat Arsenal 2-1 in the last final at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium on Sunday thanks to a brace from Ivorian hitman Didier Drogba.

He took his tally for the season to 28 with a goal in each half after Theo Walcott’s first goal for Arsenal had put Arsene Wenger’s young guns in front in the 11th minute of a thrilling contest.

But the game was marred by Terry’s horror injury in the second half when the Chelsea and England captain was left concussed by a kick to the head from Abou Diaby.

Terry was treated on the pitch by Chelsea medics and Arsenal and England physio Gary Lewin for close to five minutes as fears grew for the player’s well-being.

Although he regained consciousness before reaching the dressing room, he was taken to hospital only to check out and rejoin his team-mates at the stadium.

Lampard, who took the captain’s armband after Terry had left the field, enjoyed the honour of lifting the trophy but marvelled at the resilience of his club and international team-mate.

Lampard declared: “It looked very bad but not as bad as it could have been. John recovered very sharply and wanted to be back with the lads.

“Of course it would have been nice for John to be up there with me. For me the thing of lifting the trophy personally is not important, what is important is the lads being up there together after we’ve won the game.

“It feels nice to lift a trophy and John has done it before. But it’s all about the team winning.”

Blues coach Jose Mourinho put all thoughts of football out of his mind as Terry fought to regain consciousness.

Mourinho has already had to watch goalkeeper Petr Cech suffer a fractured skull this season and said it was a typical piece of bravery by Terry as he tried to head a loose ball into the net.

Mourinho said: “John lost consciousness. That was a major problem. That meant he was immediately out of the game, even if he recovered. He recovered on the pitch.

“At that moment, you just want the player to be fine. Sometimes dramatic things happen. You never know when it happens to you. This season we have already had the situations with Petr Cech and Carlo Cudicini and the negative thoughts come directly to your mind.

“The first point is ’is he safe, is the man fine?’ His wife is here and his little babies are here, so the most important thing is that the man is safe and is fine.

“I was with the fourth official, who was in direct communication with (referee) Howard Webb. He told him what was going to happen, so I knew everything.

“The Arsenal medical department was already there because they had been treating an injury, so they were close to the situation. Everything was under control.

“I just know he was heading the ball. It would be normal for an Arsenal player to try to kick it five metres from his own goal. The defensive player has to do that.

“John risked himself and the Arsenal player was trying to protect his goal. I have no criticism about that. After that, the only thing we know was in that couple of minutes we were worried because he lost consciousness. Once our doctor had arrived half the problem had been solved.”