Chelsea suffer injury blow as Fernando Torres to miss Schalke clash

Fernando Torres

Fernando Torres is a huge doubt ahead of Chelsea‘s Champions League match with Schalke on Wednesday night.

The Spaniard, who scored two goals against the Germans two weeks ago, missed training this morning after leaving training early yesterday.

It’s believed he is struggling with a thigh injury which was aggravated on Monday.

The 29-year-old played an hour for Chelsea on Saturday as Newcastle United beat them 2-0, but Jose Mourinho revealed he has a ‘muscular’ problem and the club are awaiting the results of a scan to determine the full extent of it.

“Fernando we know is a muscular injury” he said. “We don’t know the dimension, we have to wait.”

Either Samuel Eto’o or Demba Ba will deputise for Torres against Schalke according to the Blues’ boss.

“Samuel and Demba, they want to play, they want to play,” Mourinho added.

“They are waiting for opportunities to play so when they have that chance, and they know they are going to have it in this game and the next game against West Brom, they know they are going to have in their hands the job to play up front. I think it has to be, a good motivation for them, and hopefully they can express on the pitch the way they work during the week.”

Chelsea are currently top of Group E, joint with Schalke on six points and can move a step closer to the knock-out stages with a win at Stamford Bridge.

Fernando Torres has the highest shot accuracy (67%) for Chelsea in the Premier League this season for anyone who has hit more than three shots.