John Terry To Miss 1st Month

John Terry suffered medial knee ligament damage during Chelsea's training on Saturday 4th August. The injury ruled him out of the preseason Community Shield match against Man Utd, and is expected to keep him out of the team for a month.

These sort of injuries can sometimes take a long time to fully repair (although no doubt that Chelsea will have the best rehab that money can buy...) Most information available suggests Terry will be back for the first game in September.

As Chelsea captain, Terry was predictably one of the most popular defenders in fantasy league teams: nearly one quarter of all teams have him. With his departure, who should replace him?

Carvalho becomes an even more attractive Chelsea option, and with Terrys departure Tel Ben Haim will also get more game time. There are some questions over Ben Haim's occasionally rash tackles which may lead to the odd card, but weighed against the bonus from likely clean sheets as part of the Chelsea defense, it may be worth the risk. Man Utd's Patrice Evra is another possibility, and is also from a team likely to keep clean sheets during the first month. Carragher of Liverpool is another good option. Liverpool typically keep several clean sheets each season, and Carragher plays the most minutes of any Liverpudian defender. His disciplinary record is also fairly good.

Any of these players offer excellent, and less expensive, options to replace Terry.