Chelsea FC

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Injured Cech set to miss out

04 Apr 2008 - 16:00:07

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Chelsea boss Avram Grant has suggested that injured goalkeeper Petr Cech will not be risked in Saturday's trip to Manchester City.

The Czech Republic international has missed the last eight games with an ankle problem and, although he has returned to training this week, Grant seems likely to stick with understudy Carlo Cudicini.

Cech is likely to make his return in the second leg of next week's Champions League quarter-final with Fenerbahce instead.

"Until yesterday Cech had made a lot of improvement and we need to see where he is at the end of the recovery period," claimed Grant.

"He is better than 50-50, he is almost ready. It will be a medical decision.

"But we have other goalkeepers who have done a good job this year."

Meanwhile, Grant has played down reports of a rift with Frank Lampard after the England midfielder's furious reaction to being substituted in the 2-1 first-leg defeat to Fenerbahce in Turkey on Wednesday.

"Frank is a very passionate player. He was very disappointed that Fenerbahce had equalised," claimed the Israeli coach.

"I shook hands with Frank. I like passionate players. If his reaction was good or not, it is an internal matter.

"The discipline at Chelsea has been very good since I've been here. I speak with all the players, but I speak about the game and not something else.

"Everybody was disappointed. It was one of our best performances but we lost the game so he wanted to understand why, that's all."