Concerns Growing Over John Terry’s Future?

It’s something I’ve been thinking for a while and this week I finally read some similar questions raised in the press – how much longer will John Terry feature regularly for Chelsea?

We all know the Chelsea captain likes to play no matter what, in fact, Scolari’s recent joke about him ‘playing with one leg’, isn’t that far from the truth, but his tendency to do this might see a premature end to his career. His insistence on returning from injury before he probably should is just putting unnecessary strain on what’s now becoming a weak area for him, raising the question of whether he’s now regarded as another ‘injury prone’ player.

Terry has missed out on both internationals this time round with his recurrent back trouble and the suggestion seems to be that the frequency of these recurrences is starting to worry medical staff. With him ruled out of last night’s game against Belarus, Capello stated ‘There comes a time, especially as a defender, when you’re going to have to put your body on the line. You have to make a decision in some games, and John does that every week. The older you get, the more you start to get these problems and it’s a case of getting good advice, good treatment, and making sure your body’s strong enough to compete. When you get to a certain age you might have had a piece of surgery that changes the balance of your body and, after years of pounding away, leads to a chronic problem. So it’s a case of getting the right balance and strength.’

Terry had missed 10 of England’s 37 games in the previous three seasons and the statistics around his Chelsea appearances don’t make for happy reading either. The decline in his ‘ever-present’ status over the years has seen a fall from 51 in the 2003-04 campaign, to just 37 last season.

Fortunately, whilst Mourinho very much appeared happy to encourage his men to play til they dropped, Scolari doesn’t seem quite as carefree when it comes to his player’s fitness and won’t be pressuring Terry to return any earlier than necessary.

But with his appearances seemingly showing cause for concern, has the captain’s ‘bravery’ already taken its toll?