Terry struggling with injury

Chelsea captain John Terry has revealed he is finding it difficult to breathe during games but is ready to play through the pain of his suspected fractured ribs.

Terry was substituted an hour into Wednesday night's UEFA Champions League match against Benfica and is due to undergo a scan on Thursday morning.

The 31-year-old suffered the injury in last week's first-leg victory in Lisbon and was able to complete that match and play 90 minutes of Saturday's Premier League win over Aston Villa.

He admitted he was gasping for air at Stamford Bridge on Wednesday, but insisted he was ready to continue playing through the pain during what is a nightmare run of eight games in just 26 days, including Champions League and FA Cup semi-finals against Barcelona and Tottenham respectively.

Terry said after the 2-1 victory over Benfica: "I couldn't breathe and my chest was closing up.

"I was having a difficult time out there, especially in the first half. Hopefully, I'll be okay.

"I don't know how long I'll be out. I will have a scan in the morning and we will see where we go from there. It's just horrible.

"In the away leg, after about 20 minutes, I got an elbow in the ribs and they sort of fear I fractured two ribs, so I've just got to wait and see the result of the scans.

Difficult

"When you get one in the ribs, you can't do anything about it, you can't treat it, you just have let it heal, but I can get through games definitely.

"I thought it was okay but, later in the second half, it just seemed to be getting worse and I was struggling to breathe to be honest.

"It was difficult. I have never felt anything like that before."

Having knocked out Benfica 3-1 over two legs, Chelsea now face reigning champions Barcelona in the last four of Europe's premier competition.

Terry said: "It's a very good achievement to reach our sixth semi-final in nine years, but we want to go through to the end.

"Clearly, that's going to be tough against Barcelona, but we're playing well.

"I am not sure anyone will fancy playing us at the moment because we are a very good side, especially in this competition."

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