Saturday Mar 31 2007 12:35
Chelsea winger Arjen Robben is set to miss the rest of the season due to a knee injury, much to the annoyance of Blues manager Jose Mourinho.
Robben featured for the Netherlands in their Euro 2008 qualifiers against both Romania and Slovenia, but reported back to the Blues with a knee problem that requires surgery.
Mourinho told the club's official website: "Robben will be out for a long time.
"For me it is a bit difficult to accept because he played two matches for his country, 90 minutes last Wednesday, and the next day he came here and he is injured.
"He needs surgery and we lose an important player maybe for the rest of the season.
"At this time we just want to have no more injuries because the matches are arriving and all of them are like finals.
"What a player like John Terry wants to do now is play and play and play and not miss one single second, because he missed so much in the season.
"We have some very strong characters and if they are not injured, they want to play every time."
Robben joined Chelsea in the summer of 2004 for £12million from PSV Eindhoven, but has been plagues by a succession of niggling injuries, which have often annoyed Mourinho.
The 23-year-old has scored 19 goals in 104 appearances for the Blues to date.
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