Chelsea Football Club News

• Nickname:Blues
• Founded:1905
• Manager:Roberto Di Matteo

• Ground:Stamford Bridge
• Capacity:42,440

Grant concerned for Claude

28 Jan 2008 - 08:44:37

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Chelsea boss Avram Grant says he was worried about Claude Makelele after the midfielder was caught in the face by Michael Brown during the Blues' 2-1 FA Cup fourth round win over Wigan Athletic.

Makelele appeared to be struck by a stray elbow from Brown, with Grant and his coaching staff showing their concern, with the veteran France international having recently had surgery on an ear problem.

"I'm not saying he was caught," Grant commented. "I was protesting because I wanted the referee to stop the play because there might have been a head injury.

"I was concerned because I saw him go down and he has recently had this operation."

Latics boss Steve Bruce felt there was little to concern him over the incident, adding: "There's no incident as far as I'm concerned and I asked all of their bench 'did you see it?'.

"They ran up and jumped out of their skins because Makelele is on the floor, yet not one of them saw the incident, like I didn't.

"I don't mind if there's an incident to shout about, but I feel it was handbags. There's nothing in it at all and it's a shame we are talking about it."

Meanwhile, Grant again hailed the improvement in form shown by his side since he succeeded Jose Mourinho earlier this season.

He added: "The most important thing is we keep the style of the team, even if we've a number of players unavailable.

"The likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips and Steve Sidwell are doing a decent job, and that tells me what I thought, that the players have developed well in the last three months.

"We have developed our football, our spirit and we keep playing our game."