NO CECH FEARS OVER READING RETURN

Jose Mourinho insists Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech is not afraid of returning to the Madejski Stadium for the first time since he suffered a serious head injury there.

The 25-year-old will play against Reading in the Barclays Premier League on Wednesday night after fully recovering from the setback that almost ended his career.

The Czech Republic international continues to wear protective headgear after his collision with Royals midfielder Stephen Hunt left him with a fractured skull last October.

Hunt has already said he will not be offering Cech any words of comfort when the pair meet again.

The Reading player has not spoken with the Chelsea keeper since the accident but Mourinho believes Cech will take the game in his stride.

When asked if he thought Cech would be affected by his return to the stadium, Blues boss Mourinho replied: "I don't think so. It's just a game, a difficult one, but nothing else."

Mourinho was boosted by the return of full-back Paulo Ferreira to his squad for the game and expects to have everyone fit for the trip to Liverpool at the weekend, aside from Wayne Bridge and Michael Ballack.

But the squad which defeated Birmingham 3-2 on Saturday will be on duty against Reading, with Mourinho still to make a decision over whether to include injured midfielder Michael Essien.

Essien scored the winning goal against Steve Bruce's side but collected a knee ligament injury in the same game and was forced out of the action.

But Mourinho said: "The situation is the same we had last weekend. I have to make a decision about Michael Essien - maybe yes or maybe no - but the rest of the squad will be the same.

"Paulo Ferreira is back so that gives me more options but I hope to have everyone back for Liverpool.

"Andriy Shevchenko and Claude Makelele are back in training and John Terry will start training normally tomorrow.

"By the weekend, only Michael Ballack and Wayne Bridge, who are recovering from surgery, will be missing. After that everything will be fine for the weekend."

Mourinho officially welcomed new signing Alex to the club on Tuesday but said the Brazilian defender would require a further two weeks of intensive training before being considered.

Alex spent three years with PSV Eindhoven in Holland but Chelsea always had the first option to buy him.

The player was granted a work permit a fortnight ago and Mourinho believes Alex possesses all the physical attributes required to succeed in the English game.

Mourinho said: "He's just started training a couple of days ago - with the group and then on his own.

"He's not ready to play. He dominates in the air and has the physique to adapt to the English way of playing. Maybe one of the reasons we lost the championship last season was because we did not have a lot of defenders.

"We lost Robert Huth and William Gallas in pre-season and John Terry was out for three months. Khalid Boulahrouz and Ricardo Carvalho were also out injured and we did not really have any solutions.

"I was scared whenever any of my central defenders went into a challenge and it was not a good situation for us just to have Carvalho and Terry.

"Now there is no reason to be scared like we were last season because we have Terry, Carvalho Tal Ben Haim and Alex."

The Chelsea boss also believes competition for places among his defensive quartet will be something the Brazilian will relish.

He added: "He plays in the most famous national team in the history of football and if he can cope with the challenge of that, he can cope with it at Chelsea.

"It is competitive in the Brazil squad and in Chelsea it is the same."

Taken from =football365=