Fernando Torres piles the misery on Jose Mourinho

Posted Wednesday, November 06, 2013 by Express.co.uk

FERNANDO TORRES is a major doubt for Chelsea’s Champions League clash with Schalke tomorrow night after injuring a leg muscle in training yesterday.

Fernando Torres piles the misery on Jose Mourinho
Fernando Torres injured a leg muscle in the run up to playing Schalke

Torres was sent home early to rest following treatment at the club’s training ground and manager Jose Mourinho will make a final decision today after more tests.

Mourinho may have to turn to Samuel Eto’o, who has scored just once since joining the club in August. Mourinho’s only other fit and available striker, Demba Ba, has made only five appearances all season and is yet to find the net.

Mourinho is set to axe Frank Lampard, Branislav Ivanovic and David Luiz tomorrow after being infuriated by the performance in the 2-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday.

The places of Eden Hazard and Juan Mata are not safe, either, with one of them also likely to be left out against the Germans, who Chelsea beat 3-0 in Gelsenkirchen a fortnight ago. The quartet are set to be replaced by Andre Schurrle, Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta and Willian, who all missed out against Newcastle.

Fernando Torres piles the misery on Jose Mourinho
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho will make a decision today whether to include Torres on the team

The erratic Luiz, in particular, had a poor game at St James’ Park, but so did the normally reliable Ivanovic.

Mourinho had been intent on sticking with the strikers he has, but that view is now changing.

Interest in Ba from West Ham and Valencia will free up a space in the squad and the apparent breakdown of Robert Lewandowski’s move from Borussia Dortmund to Bayern Munich has also alerted Chelsea to the Pole’s possible availability in January in a cut-price deal.

Real Madrid, meanwhile, will make a £20million move for Chelsea midfielder Ramires during the window. Real coach Carlo Ancelotti is an admirer – he signed the Brazilian in August 2010 while in charge at Stamford Bridge – and made an enquiry during the summer, but was rebuffed.

Ancelotti can offer players as part of the deal, with Chelsea keen on Real’s former Liverpool star Xabi Alonso and also German Sami Khedira.