Scolari won´t whinge about injuries

Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari insists he will never join the chorus of disapproval about international football despite losing several key players to injury this week.

Rafa Benitez is fuming after Fernando Torres and Ryan Babel were ruled out with injuries suffered in this week's World Cup fixtures and the Liverpool boss wants a reduction in the amount of games played during qualifying campaigns.

But Scolari, who has more reason than most to complain about the negative effect of international football after sustaining even more casualties, believes managers like Benitez should stop moaning.

Already without Joe Cole, Michael Essien, Didier Drogba and Ricardo Carvalho, Scolari's Premier League leaders will now travel to Middlesbrough for Saturday's clash without Michael Ballack, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech.

As if that wasn't bad enough, Jose Bosingwa and Alex are also injury doubts. John Terry returned to training on Thursday and is expected to recover from the back injury that kept him out of England's matches and Deco will be on the bench even though he isn't fully fit, but Scolari has been left with just a 19-man squad for the Riverside Stadium clash.

Yet Scolari simply sees the injury crisis as a test of his own ability.

“Joe Cole won't go with us and some other players are injured,” Scolari said. “Ballack is out for two or three weeks, but I am not angry, I am happy because it is a test for me to show I am a good coach.

“It is not a problem for me if there are one, two or three injures. It is normal in football. It is not difficult for me. I need to build a different team every week.

“It is not only my players, it is players for all the clubs. Lots of teams have injuries because internationals are strong games. It is normal, you have to accept this.

“The life of the coach is like that. You have to understand this can happen.”

During his time as Portugal and Brazil coach, Scolari saw the other side of the story as players pulled out of international matches under pressure from their managers.

He is adamant that club bosses need to be more understanding of their international colleagues and not use injuries as an excuse for poor results.

“They put games for the national team at these times and all the coaches need to understand this,” Scolari said.

“We discussed this when I was with the national team in Portugal. We had many meetings with FIFA and UEFA. We gave our opinion about qualification but if they don't change what can I or Rafa Benitez do?

“It is not only one club that loses when the national teams play. One time my team lose two or three players, one time Liverpool, one time Manchester United and one time Schalke. We need to accept this.”

Chelsea have lost two of their last three visits to Middlesbrough so Scolari could be forgiven for feeling the injury curse has struck at the worst possible time.

But the Brazilian refuses to contemplate anything but another victory to extend Chelsea's unbeaten start under his leadership.

“I want to win and the players want to win,” he said “If they are thinking about a draw many of my players wouldn't be involved but in training they show they want to win. I have a very good, strong team for Middlesbrough.”