John Terry’s latest injury concerns have seen him miss both of England’s qualifiers this week and have raised further questions about his physical state. Is the Chelsea and England skipper a broken footballer ? In fantasy terms he very well could be.

Terry was once a must-have fantasy signing. Assured of an almost ever-present season, his purposeful trots up the field for set-plays offered expectation of another bulldozed headed goal. In recent seasons those goals have dried up spectacularly but it’s Terry’s slow descent into the “injury prone” bracket that has been most concerning…

Over the past five seasons his starts in the blue shirt have displayed a gradual decline from 53 starts for Chelsea in 2004-05 to 35 appearances last season. That drop hasn’t occurred from a lack of opportunity – Chelsea have certainly been busy.

A glance at his goal stats also show a similar trend. An impressive tally of 8 goals in all competitions in 2004-05 was followed by 7 the following season. However, as appearances have dropped away, Terry’s contribution at the sharp end has fallen from 3 goals in 2006-07 to just 2 last term.

For a good while, Terry’s propensity to pick up knocks, scrapes and mid-term injuries have been put down to bad luck, but clearly there is more to it. As several articles are speculating today, Terry no longer appears to have the resilience to match his committed playing style and it’s taking its toll.

One glance at Terry’s record on physioroom.com highlights his long list of ailments, while the Mail’s treatment of his various conditions clearly demonstrates that we’re not talking purely about recurring problems. His back and knees are obvious weaknesses, but in the past five seasons Terry’s entire body has suffered blows that have seen him sidelined for various lengths of time.

The fantasy games seem oblivious to this however. Terry is consistently priced right at the very top of the defender bracket. This season’s Fantasy Premier League game saw Terry come in at 7.5, a clear 0.5 ahead of his nearest rivals – Ferdinand and Vidic. Similarly, Terry topped the price charts in the Fantasy League at 5.3, ahead of team mate Carvalho and United’s Vidic and Ferdinand once again. Ferdinand pipped him in the value stakes in the Telegraph, although Terry still ranked second with a price of 4.8.

Fantasy Managers have known for a good while that Terry’s value at these prices is highly questionable. While Chelsea are strong clean sheet gatherers, Terry’s contributions through goals and Fantasy Premier League bonus have dropped and so far this season, there has been no evidence to suggest that this will improve.

I’ve got to hold up my hands here and admit that Terry’s halcyon days have lingered long in memory – when you’ve found such a solid fantasy performer, there’s almost a spell of denial to conquer before you can finally let him go. But this latest spell of uncertainty over his fitness can only compound doubts over his value. The likes of Carvalho and certainly Bosingwa, have now superseded him in the Chelsea defence and it will take a lengthy clean bill of health and a decent price drop to change that next term.