Chelsea's Alex to miss three weeks with thigh-muscle injury

Chelsea will have to make do without Alex for three weeks after the in-form central defender received unfavourable news from the scan on the thigh muscle he hurt in Sunday's 2-0 win over Arsenal. Ray Wilkins, the assistant manager, had joked that Alex might have sustained the problem when striking the 25-yard free-kick which secured the victory. Wilkins described the injury as a "little nick" and his tone suggested that it was not too serious. But the scan that Alex underwent on Monday revealed damage that is severe enough to ruin the rest of his month. He has been withdrawn from the Brazil squad that will play friendlies against Iran in Abu Dhabi on Thursday and Ukraine at Pride Park next Monday and he stands to miss at least three matches for Chelsea – away to Aston Villa and at home to Wolves, either side of the Champions League trip to Spartak Moscow. Carlo Ancelotti says that the right-back Jose Bosingwa is close to a return after virtually a year out with knee trouble. The Chelsea manager is more likely, though, to bring in Paulo Ferreira at right-back and use Branislav Ivanovic in the centre of defence in Alex's absence. The other option at centre-half is the 18-year-old Jeffrey Bruma. John Terry, meanwhile, says he is still struggling with a rib injury ahead of England's game against Montenegro. Terry missed England's first two matches in Group G, against Bulgaria and Switzerland last month, with a hamstring problem, then bruised ribs during Chelsea's win over West Ham last month. "I take elbows in the ribs in a lot of games but it is one of them where I have a bit of bruising and the masseurs can't get into it because it is too sore," Terry said. "I had an X-ray and a scan and thankfully it came back all-clear. It is a case of getting on with it, but sneezing and coughing is really painful."