Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas is hopeful that John Terry will not be out for six weeks.
Reports this afternoon claimed that the skipper would be out for six to eight weeks as a result of a knee operation that he is due to undergo tomorrow.
However, Villas-Boas believes that the defender will be back ahead of schedule.
"Hopefully John Terry will be out for less than six weeks," he told Sky Sports News. "They are cleaning the joint and hopefully it will be less.
Meanwhile, the boss also revealed his reasoning behind not starting Ashley Cole for tonight's Champions League tie at Napoli.
"Ashley Cole has only had two training session and we decided, just for this game, to play Jose Bosingwa at left-back," he added.
Chelsea will face Napoli in the return leg in a fortnight.