Chelsea manager Antonio Conte has insisted that captain John Terry remains a hugely important player for the club.
The 35-year-old is back available again after recovering from injury and featured in the EFL Cup defeat to West Ham United in midweek, but Conte faces a difficult decision regarding whether to restore Terry to his starting line-up for Sunday’s Premier League game away to Southampton.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Conte said: “It’s logical John came back from injury and it’s not easy to restart and to find quickly the right shape. I’m satisfied for him.
“John is an important player for us, if he plays, if he doesn’t play, for the changing room, for his team-mates, for the club.”
Concerns have been expressed in some quarters regarding whether Terry, given his lack of pace, will be able to cope with playing as part of a three-man defence following Conte’s recent tactical alteration.
If Terry does start against Southampton then Conte would have to alter the defence that was so resilient in the thrashing of Manchester United last weekend and at present it is difficult to envisage how the experienced skipper is going to get back into the starting line-up barring an injury to one of Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz or Gary Cahill.
Terry does, however, remain a fine distributor of the ball, as demonstrated by the fact that he has an average pass accuracy of 91% in the Premier League this season.
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