Didier Drogba will be out for weeks rather than months according to a statement on Chelsea’s site this evening. Meanwhile, Scolari’s put his cards on the table with Deco’s injury, naming a speculative date for his return.

First, let’s cover the Drogba injury, which appears to have transformed itself from a possible fractured knee, to ligament damage and now to “two forceful rotations in his knee and ankle” according to Chelsea’s “medical bulletin”. That still sounds pretty painful but in terms of a potential absence, it appears to be much better news for Chelsea…

“We will keep him under observation for the next two or three days before putting an estimate on how long he’ll be out, but we’re certainly looking at weeks, not months”, concluded the communication from the club.

Moving onto Deco and apparently Scolari has been belated revealing some details on his injury sustained against Man United in the warm-up. The Chelsea boss spilt the beans on Chelsea TV and estimated that we’d be looking at another two-to-three weeks before we saw the Portuguese playmaker back in the blue.

That would put him in the picture for the Boro game after the international break, although with a Champions League tie against Roma four days later and Liverpool at home on the Sunday, his return could well slip to one of those games.

Deco has doubtless been shipped out by thousands of fantasy managers (52,000+ so far this week in the FPL) as Lampard continues to produce. Plus we’ve seen the return of Fabregas and Ronaldo in his absence, putting pressure on funds in the midfield area.

It seems unlikely then, that Deco will get the kind of reception from fantasy managers he enjoyed in the first couple of weeks in the season, when his early returns earned plenty of investment.