Cahill ready to fill Terry void

Gary Cahill insists he is fully prepared for the challenge of replacing John Terry in a period he believes will be “massive” for Chelsea.

Chelsea captain Terry begins his four-match ban for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand at Tottenham on Saturday lunchtime and will also miss home games against Manchester United, in the Barclays Premier League and Capital One Cup later this month, as well as the top-flight match away to Michael Laudrup’s Swansea.

Cahill is expected to play alongside David Luiz at centre-half for the trip to White Hart Lane but the 26-year-old’s preparation has been far from ideal.

The former Bolton defender was an unused substitute for England’s World Cup qualifier in Poland on Wednesday, which took an extra day to be played because of the postponement on Tuesday night and the delay meant Cahill only returned to club training on Thursday.

“We have some massive games coming up and it’s going to be important,” Cahill told Chelsea TV.

“It starts tomorrow with the early kick off and it’s going to be a huge game. Both teams are in form at the moment, so it’s going to be tough.

“I feel okay. It was good to get back out training again because I have done a lot of travelling and haven’t done much for the past couple of days. It was important that I got back out and got moving – I enjoy being back out on the pitch.”