Terry Should Save Face, Sit This One Out

Why is the Chelsea captain willing to risk further injury by rushing back from cheekbone surgery? The Champions League match against Valencia is not a make or break situation. If Chelsea lose - and I fully believe they will get well handled - they can still advance out of the group stage. More important, he should place country before club and ensure his health before the crucial Euro '08 qualifiers in over week. Despite playing uninspiring football at the moment (to put it gently) Chelsea should be able to ease past Bolton on the weekend without Terry as well. This would set them up for another 3 points against Middlesbrough and a chance to move up the table. Risking serious injury is just moronic at this point when Chelsea are in desperate need of looking at the bigger picture.

Terry has not been a motivating or inspiring captain for over a year now. Coming back from a broken cheekbone injury and participating in a Chelsea loss won't help matters. If he plays and Chelsea knock off Valencia I promise it won't be due to Terry. The club needs players like Joe Cole, Michael Essien and Solomon Kalou to have a massive evening. Players will need to pick up the slack when manager Avram Grant decides to give Andriy Shevchenko a run out.

Thus, John Terry should do the right thing and take a week off. He should encourage his teammates on from the bench, boost morale at the club by saying the correct things about manager and owner to the press and ready himself to lead England. An elbow, knee or foot to the face and the man could be on the mend for weeks. With Frank Lampard already battling injury, Didier Drogba and John Obi Mikel dealing with PL red card suspensions and Richardo Carvalho's return date not set in stone a serious Terry injury will all but eliminate Chelsea's hopes of a top 3 (or 4 finish).

Sit this one out captain.