Rafa Benitez revealed tonight that Chelsea captain John Terry is involved in a vicious cycle where he’s been unable to completely recover from his string of injuries. However, Terry believes he’s match-fit and ready to play for the Blues again. Benitez obviously disagrees at Terry was left to sit on the bench again tonight.

“During the [last] week he had a setback,” Benítez said, according to a report in The Guardian. “Then he was fine again [when he returned to training this week] and he had no reaction in the training session. But we have to manage the situation. He has to train more with the team and then he will have more options to play. It’s a vicious circle. If he cannot play, he cannot improve his match fitness but, if he can’t train with the team, he can’t improve his fitness. We have to manage the situation but in the meantime, if [Gary] Cahill and [Branislav] Ivanovic are doing well, we can keep winning games.”

What do you think? Is Terry really ready to come back, or is Benitez conveniently using the injury as a way to cement Cahill and Ivanovic as the main central defenders, which will make it easier to push Terry out when the time comes? Share your opinion in the comments section below.

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